A total of 108 persons age 60 and over were vaccinated against the novel coronavirus yesterday at the Enmore Polyclinic as persons continued to take the opportunity to get immunised.
On Wednesday, when the Ministry of Health began vaccinating persons 60 years and older with both the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covishield and Chinese Sinopharm vaccines, 49 persons were vaccinated at the clinic.
During an interview with Stabroek News, the leader of the vaccination team yesterday stated that the clinic has seen a good response so far. She explained that there is a sufficient amount of vaccines available and at any given time they run short, supplies are readily available.
At the time of Stabroek News’ visit, 70 were vaccinated while the remainder were scheduled to be vaccinated shortly.
The team leader explained that they are working with a close off time to avoid a long waiting time but were also monitoring the amount of persons booked, in order to work with the 8am to 4pm scheduled working hours.
However, she stated that her team will remain there until Monday while a new team is expected to arrive after to continue the process.
She added that the team is made up of East Coast nurses.
She is encouraging persons to visit the sites available around the country to be vaccinated, while saying that the vaccine is safe and will reduce severe responses to the virus.
Meanwhile, interested persons 60 years and older in Georgetown can visit the Vaccination Centre at Lot 1 Brickdam or at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) from today in order to be vaccinated.
Prior to being vaccinated, persons are first screened and assessed at each site to determine their eligibility. It was stated that the process is brief and that valid identification is necessary in order to determine the age of the individual. Before being vaccinated, the recipient is registered and receives a vaccination card. This card shows the return date for the issuing of the second dose of the vaccine as well as the name of the vaccine given.
This newspaper was told that the return date for an individual to be vaccinated with their second dose varies according to the vaccine received.
It was explained that the AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine is given a time frame of 12 weeks apart, while the Sinopharm vaccine ranges from 21 to 28 days apart.
As a precautionary measure, health care workers are advising persons who were vaccinated within the last four weeks to wait a period of one month before being vaccinated again. In addition, all those who took filaria pills during the recent campaign are being asked to wait for at least 28 days before getting vaccinated.
Persons who are vaccinated have been kept under observation for approximately 15 minutes before being allowed to leave.
Several senior citizens on Wednesday expressed their joy over the opportunity to be vaccinated.
In a notice on its Facebook page, the Ministry said that vaccinations will occur on Mondays through Fridays from 8 am to 4 pm.
It identified the following locations:
Mabaruma District Hospital
Port Kaituma Hospital
Charity Hospital
Suddie Regional Hospital
Vreed-en-Hoop Health Centre
New Amsterdam Health Centre
Skeldon Regional Hospital
Enmore Polyclinic
Bartica Health Centre
Mahdia District Hospital
Lethem Health Centre
Annai Health Centre
