As of Sunday, a total of over 140,000 persons here had received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony has announced.
During an interview yesterday with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Anthony said 142,869 persons had received their first dose, while of that number, a total of 5,035 persons had received their second doses, making them fully vaccinated.
Anthony further reported that in nine of the ten administrative regions, about 30 per cent of the adult population has received a first dose of a vaccine. The exception is Region Ten, where he said the figure is 8.6%. It was against this background that Anthony, Minister with responsibility for Finance Dr Ashni Singh, Junior Minister of Local Government and Regional Development Anand Persaud, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd and Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai visited to engage with residents of Region Ten on Sunday, in an effort to encourage them to get vaccinated.
“We ended up with 119 persons taking their first dose and I think that’s a positive step,” Anthony said. He noted that a total of 11 vaccination sites were up and running in the region on Sunday.
He said that his visit seemed to help with raising the number to the highest it’s been since the vaccination programme started.
Anthony added that he intends to visit every region to get citizens to get their COVID shots.
Meanwhile, asked whether persons who may become infected would get their second dose, Anthony explained that such persons might have to wait until after their ten days of recovery is over, if they have a mild form of the infection, before they can receive their second dose. But he noted that because of the interval between the dosages, it is likely that persons would recover before they are due for the second dose.
He also noted that the eligibility for inoculation will not be lowered from 18 years old until further data from trials on persons at age 16 and younger is made available.
