Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony yesterday stated that Guyana is still working on the logistics for more COVID-19 vaccines. This disclosure was made during his daily COVID-19 update where he stated that while Guyana has begun immunisation, authorities are working to ensure more vaccines are obtained by the end of the month. The country is expected to receive a donation of 20,000 vaccines from the Government of China along with the 102,000 vaccines courtesy of the COVAX facility.
“We’re still trying to tighten up the logistics of when exactly they’re coming in, we’re expecting some vaccines from Sinopharm which is a donation from the Chinese government. So those arrangements we are currently trying to tie up,” he said while adding that other bilateral arrangements are also being worked on.
The minister stated that the timeframe to receive a substantial amount of vaccines appears to be by the end of this month. He stated that since the Astra Zeneca vaccine was recently approved by the World Health Organisation, Guyana should be receiving its share from COVAX very soon.
He also reiterated that the response by healthcare workers who have been vaccinated so far remains positive and on Monday the authorities were able to provide vaccines to about 313 more doctors and nurses. “At this rate we would exhaust the initial supply that we would have received but we are working to make sure that we would get more vaccines by the end of the month,” he said, referring to the donation of 3,000 shots that Guyana recently received from Barbados.
Meanwhile when asked if persons who are vaccinated would still be required to do a PCR test for travel, he stated that it is still required.
“None of the vaccines are 100% efficacious which means that it doesn’t prevent 100% of the infection. Therefore that small percentage that is there, people can get infected and if they can get infected, because they have been immunised they might get it in a mild form but that doesn’t prevent them from transmitting,” the minister informed.
With that he noted that scientists are currently conducting observations to ascertain whether persons who have been vaccinated can transmit the virus and at what rate. According to Anthony, “The bottom line here is even if you receive your two shots, you would still need to do a PCR test if you’re travelling to another country and those countries would require it and therefore if you travel you have to produce that PCR.”
This issue, he noted, was raised at the level of both the WHO and the Pan American Health Organization and they have stated that when investigations are completed they will indicate if the advice to have persons present a PCR test for travel can be changed.
