In a major development in the battle against the Coronavirus, Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy yesterday announced that the country’s COVID-19 vaccination programme will be extended from today to persons 18 years and older and he assured that there is no shortage of shots to provide second doses.
Ramsammy made the first disclosure in a post to his Facebook Page where he stated, “We go to all age groups starting at age 18 and above as of tomorrow for COVID-19 vaccination.” The surprise announcement came not long after Ramsammy in a press statement noted that the Ministry has not made any changes to the eligibility for inoculation.
The rationale behind the decision was not announced and it comes amid views that all persons who would like to be vaccinated should be offered the shot. Significant vaccine hesitancy has been reported in some communities here and this could affect the target date for the attainment of herd immunity – where around 80% of the population has been vaccinated.
The former minister of health in the statement yesterday said that there are enough vaccines in storage to provide second shots to those who would have received their first dose. This announcement was made after concerns were raised about the possibility of persons not being able to acquire their second dose.
“Their concerns have been heightened by rumours that the Ministry of Health has been using up all vaccines that have come into the country. These rumours are the work of persons with malicious intent,” Ramsammy said in the statement.
To this end he noted that the Government has ensur-ed that for every person who has received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine that there is an equivalent amount of vaccine doses in storage to then provide a second shot.
“We assured persons not to worry, their (second) doses are secured safely and there will be no delay in them receiving their second doses. Even as the MOH assures the public everyone with a first dose is guaranteed second doses on a timely basis, the MOH urges those spreading rumours and fake news to desist from such reckless behaviour,” the statement added.
The ministerial advisor noted that by the end of this week the country would have taken possession of some 260,000 doses of vaccines which are enough to ensure 156,000 persons receive first doses and added that shipments of shots into Guyana are expected every week for the next several weeks.
In addition to that Ramsammy mentioned the roll out of the vaccines will be facilitated by over 100 permanent sites in all ten regions in addition to outreaches in various communities conducted by the Ministry on a daily basis. He noted that outreaches are expected to take place this weekend in a number of areas including Festival City and Plaisance in Region Four, Orealla/ Siparuta in Region Six, and Moraikobai in Region Five.
Meanwhile, Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony during his COVID-19 update yesterday informed that some 83,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccines are expected to arrive in Guyana next week. This shipment was expected to arrive yesterday but was delayed as a result of a logistical issue.
Dr Anthony also inform-ed that as of Wednesday, over 70,000 persons have received their first dose of a vaccine as the uptake in shots increases.
Thus far, Guyana has received donations of 3,000 AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccines from Barbados, 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China and 80,000 AZ vaccines from India. Guyana in turn donated 5,000 shots from the Indian donation to Barbados. Guyana has also received 55,000 shots of Sputnik 5 that it purchased and 24,000 doses of AZ through the COVAX mechanism. All of the vaccines acquired so far require two shots to be administered per person. It would mean that Guyana has received enough vaccines to fully inoculate 88,500 persons. Guyana is expecting a total of 200,000 Sputnik 5 vaccines.
In a later statement last evening, Ramsammy said: “Guyana is blessed we have a President and a Vice President that are willing and courageous in making difficult decisions on behalf of our people and our country. The decision they took today for us to move to vaccinating everyone 18 years and older against COVID-19 is bold and progressive. The President and VP promised they would work for everyone to be vaccinated. This proves they were serious. At …a time when 31 countries have no vaccine yet, when most countries are barely able to introduce vaccines, Guyana is moving towards universal vaccination. It’s a massive undertaking. But our young President and our young and experienced VP are not afraid to take difficult decisions. It is the reason why we are among the top countries among developing countries when it comes to the rate of vaccination”.
