Guyana could receive approximately 149,000 doses of approved COVID-19 vaccines through an arrangement between CARICOM and the African Union.
This announcement was made yesterday in the National Assembly by Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony who was at the time responding to questions raised by APNU+AFC Member of Parliament, Dr. Karen Cummings about the sourcing of COVID-19 vaccines for Guyana.
Dr. Anthony stated that along with working with the COVAX facility, health authorities have been engaged in bilateral talks with various countries to be able to procure vaccines in addition to the shots from COVAX which are expected to cover 20% of the country’s population.
“In addition to the COVAX facility, we are in a number of bilateral talks with various countries including not only China, but Russia and India to ensure that we can have more than that 20% for this year”, Dr. Anthony said while adding that the government has also been working with a number of multilateral agencies through which they think they would be able to access vaccines.
He went on to say that one of those agencies is the African Union which has come to an arrangement with CARICOM and has set aside 1.5 million doses of vaccines for the Caribbean. Through this arrangement he said Guyana would be able to receive 149,000 doses. At two doses per person this would work out to vaccines for 74,500 persons.
“CARICOM has brokered an arrangement with the African Union and they have set aside 1.5 million doses for the Caribbean and out of that allotment, Guyana’s quota is going to be 149,000 doses”, Anthony said while adding that they are working with the platform to ensure that Guyana is able to receive doses of the vaccine from that mechanism.
Meanwhile, he noted that Guyana has also engaged the manufacturers of some of the vaccines including those that have been producing the mRNA shots and other types that authorities think would be given emergency use listing soon.
Guyana is expected to receive around 104,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine under the WHO-led mechanism, COVAX. With two doses per person this would cover 52,000 persons.
China has also announced a donation of 20,000 of its vaccines which would cover another 10,000 persons.
