President Irfaan Ali has said that residents of regions eight and ten are lagging behind in taking the COVID-19 vaccine and he urged them to come forward.
In an address on Facebook on Thursday, Ali said “In every single administrative region, we would have had coverage of between 30 to 36% of the population above 18 years old, with the exception of Region 8 (Potaro-Siparuni) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice). So in two regions, we’re not having this coverage, particularly in the case of Region 10. Only 8.9% of the population above 18 years took the first dose of the vaccine….This is very concerning. This is very alarming.”
According to a release from the Office of the President, Ali called on residents of the two regions to get their vaccines. He said that the Ministry of Health would continue “its aggressive campaign to have everyone vaccinated,” but that more needs to be done by Guyanese, especially those in leadership positions.
“I call upon all leaders within our society to act maturely in not only taking the vaccines but in encouraging others to do the same”, Ali exhorted.
The President said that he was very concerned about anti-vaxxers, who continue their whisper campaign against the vaccination programme. He said that their reasons are not grounded in science or fact and put people’s lives at risk.
“This does not help our communities and country to exit this pandemic and I appeal to all of us to put our country first; put the lives of the people of our country first, and help in advancing the vaccination programme by encouraging every Guyanese to come on board.”
The President said that in terms of demography, younger people are not supporting the vaccination process as their older counterparts. In the 18-39 age range only 21% of the population have taken their first dose, he disclosed.
“We all know that the bulk of our population is the younger population. I want to take this opportunity to call upon all our young people to go out there and get vaccinated, to ensure that they take this very seriously. Not taking this seriously put at risk your families, put at risk your friends, your community and your country”, the President warned.
He said that the government will make the necessary investments in the coming week to ensure that the country reaches herd immunity.
He complimented health workers for their service and stressed collective responsibility.
“We are all in this together. We’re not facing this in a separate way by belief or systems or identity; we’re facing this together, as a collective. We can only beat this and get ahead of this together as a collective. We have the responsibility of ensuring our families stay safe, we have the responsibility of ensuring our communities stay safe. This is not a Government-alone task. This is not a Government-alone responsibility. This is our collective responsibility. This is our collective responsibility as Guyanese, and this is our collective responsibility as part of humanity”, the President said.
He added: “I want to assure Guyanese that our plan is to return this country and economy to normalcy as fast as possible and we’re going to invest the necessary resources in the coming week to take us there through herd immunity. The Ministry of Health would continue its aggressive campaign to have everyone vaccinated.”
