Guyana has recently submitted documents to be able to access a first wave of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility by next month.
This announcement was made on Wednesday by the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony during a COVID-19 update where he stated that the COVAX facility has been making attempts to see how quickly they could procure vaccines for the virus to distribute to the various countries.
“They have also in its most recent meeting consider doing a first wave of vaccines for various countries and Guyana was one of the countries that was asked to submit proposals to COVAX to participate in this first wave,” Anthony said.
He added that the ministry subsequently submitted all relevant documentation to COVAX and the authorities are awaiting a response. Anthony noted that there is a possibility of having the vaccines earlier, but in small doses. “Once we get that answer there is that possibility of getting vaccines a little bit earlier. It would not be in large quantities but certainly we would be able to get some vaccines earlier,” the minister said.
The minister also noted that while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been approved in a number of the large/developed countries, those countries had preordered the vaccines while others have been negotiating directly with the companies. However, Guyana’s only access for vaccines so far would be the COVAX facility.
Dr. Anthony mentioned that he does not think that there would be an issue of supply or demand for either of the two companies that are producing vaccines. “I would believe that they would be able to scale up and make sure that they are able to supply vaccines to those countries and facilities that have negotiated with them.”
