India’s donation of 80,000 COVISHIELD vaccines arrived yesterday morning at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and Prime Minister Mark Phillips expressed gratitude on behalf of Guyana.
The donation will enable the vaccination of 40,000 persons with the double-dose required.
The shot is the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine manufactured in India.
According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), Phillips said “The vaccination will help us in a substantial way as we continue the recently started phase two of dealing with COVID-19. You are aware that in phase one we were able to put measures in place and fortify our health systems to deal with not only the spread, but the tracing and treatment of people who would have contracted the disease… phase two is the vaccination”.
The Prime Minister said that Guyanese should not be fearful of taking the vaccine, but should rather embrace it to reduce their chances of death if they do contract the virus.
“For every Guyanese let me put it simply, if you have the vaccine it means you can be guarded against dying from COVID-19… while we thank the Government of India for providing the vaccine, it is an opportunity for me to appeal to the Guyanese people to come forward and take the vaccine”, he said.
The PM added that the Government would prioritise the vaccination of frontline workers, the elderly, members of the Joint Services and teachers.
In his speech on the occasion, Indian High Commissioner to Guyana, Dr. K.J. Srinivasa said that the gifting of vaccines to Guyana honoured Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s commitment to use India’s vaccine production and delivery capacity for helping all of humanity in fighting the crisis.
According to a press release from the Indian High Commission, Srinivasa emphasized that Guyana received the vaccine in the first few days of India’s assistance to friendly countries, which highlighted the special place the country occupies in India’s Foreign Policy.
He said it also bolstered India’s credentials as the immediate responder for Guyana in times of emergency situations. The High Commissioner was happy to note that with India’s support, Guyana would be able to intensify the inoculation drive at such an early stage in the global fight against the pandemic. He said he hoped that the vaccine would “help Guyana in saving lives, ameliorating suffering of Guyanese brothers and sisters and bringing the Guyanese economy back to normal”.
The COVISHIELD vaccine is manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India, Pune, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer in collaboration with Oxford-AstraZeneca. Recently, India gifted 175,000 doses of COVISHIELD to several CARICOM countries, Antigua and Barbuda (40,000 doses), St. Kitts and Nevis (20,000 doses), St. Lucia (25,000 doses), St. Vincent and Grenadines (40,000 doses) and Suriname (50,000 doses) which is part of an overall 570,000 vaccine donation to the CARICOM region.
As of 1st March 2021, India has provided 36.37 million vaccine doses to 35 countries and UN health workers and peacekeepers. The release added that in the coming days, it will supply vaccines to 39 more countries in Europe, North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, Africa, South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands.
During this pandemic, the release said that the Governments of India and Guyana worked in partnership to save lives, and ensure medicine and other essential medical supplies to Guyana. In September 2020, India extended US$1 million to the Government of Guyana for improving health infrastructure and capacities here.
This financial aid helped Guyana in procuring 35 Ventilators, 4800 PPE-clothing coverall, 4799 boxes of Masks, 4366 Face Shields, 70 boxes of Examination gloves, and various other supplies through PAHO to tide over the crisis unleashed by the COVID pandemic.
The release reported Indian Health Minister Dr Harshvardhan as saying that at least 18-19 coronavirus vaccine candidates including oral and nasal vaccines are in the pipeline and will be available for use in India in coming few months highlighting India’s predominant role as the “pharmacy of the world”.
Meanwhile, according to DPI, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony said that the Government has also been looking at other avenues to procure additional vaccines to ensure that the country achieves herd immunity before the end of 2021.
Herd immunity occurs when around 80% of a population is immune to the disease.
“We have been looking at other avenues to procure more vaccines, we have about 100,000 now and that will help us to immunise approximately 50,000 people, this is not going to be enough if we want to reach herd immunity by the end of the year…. We have been in discussion with the Government of India to see how we can get some additional vaccines… and we have also been talking to a number of other partners to see whether or not we’ll be able to procure additional vaccines,” Dr Anthony said.
Guyana kicked off its COVID vaccination campaign with a donation of 3,000 shots from Barbados. This was part of a 100,000 doses donation by India to Barbados. Guyana has also received a 20,000 vaccines donation from China and is expecting to receive a further 102,000 doses from the World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility.
