With over 150,000 persons receiving their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, the Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony yesterday said that Guyana has reached a milestone in its inoculation programme.
Dr Anthony during a brief meeting with members of the media yesterday stated that approximately 31% of the country’s adult population amounting to 150,694 persons have received the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, a total of 6,037 persons have been fully immunised after receiving both doses of a vaccine.
“Another important thing to note is that initially we had opened up vaccination to persons 60 years and above and I’m quite pleased for that age category we now have 61.3 per cent of those persons being immunised,” he informed while adding that the authorities are aiming for at least 85% and will continue to work toward achieving that.
The minister also noted that in the 40-59 age group about 26.8% persons were vaccinated while in the 18-39 age group, 20.9% persons were vaccinated. He said that one of the myths that the authorities wished to dispel is one that has been circulating among persons of the younger age group who believe that they do not need to get vaccinated as they contract a milder form of the virus.
“I want to dispel that because we are now seeing in the hospitals and so forth, we are now seeing younger patients coming in and to get treatment and in the ICU we have seen more severe cases from people between the ages of 40 and 50 and we have had unfortunately a number of deaths in that age group as well.”
The minister continued to encourage persons to get vaccinated.
