Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony is calling on persons to get vaccinated to stem the spread of COVID-19.
“I am very hopeful that by the end of the week that we can say to the Guyanese public that we have achieved more than 200,000 persons in Guyana getting their first dose, can we do that?” the Minister asked as he called on the Guyanese public to assist with achieving herd immunity.
Speaking at the commissioning ceremony of the retrofitted Diamond Hospital, Dr Anthony said that “the president and the government has invested a lot of money to ensure that we procure enough vaccines for every single adult in Guyana and I can tell you, on the president’s behalf today, that we have ensured, we have now tied up some arrangements to ensure that everyone in Guyana would be able to get that COVID-19 vaccine.” He also noted that as of Friday 116,280 persons had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, but reminded that the government is aiming for herd immunity and for that to occur, 85 per cent of the population would need to be vaccinated. “We believe that the only way out of this pandemic is that each adult in Guyana must take a COVID-19 vaccine. That is the only way we will be able to exit this pandemic,” Dr Anthony declared.
The minister mentioned that many persons are spreading misinformation and myths about the vaccines and asserted that “these vaccines are not going to prevent people from getting infection. None of the vaccines available in the world today can prevent you from getting infection. There’s still a small chance that even with the vaccines that you can get infected. If you have the vaccine, if you took both doses and you are fully immunized then the vaccine would reduce the way that you get this COVID-19 disease, it would reduce your possibility of getting into the hospital it will reduce your possibility of getting into the ICU and it will prevent you from dying,” adding that this needs to be the main focus. Anthony said that ensuring that persons do not die because of the disease is important.
He then asked that the Guyanese public do their part to achieve herd immunity, educate persons about the vaccines, and follow protocols to stem the spread of the virus. “We also know that we are in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic and what this means is that everyone in our country are at risk of getting this infection. When we look across our country there are many areas in our country where we have active cases. No region has been spared, in every region of our country we have active cases.”
