Saying 4.4% of the country’s adult population has been fully immunised against COVID-19, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony on Friday encouraged persons who already received their first dose of the vaccine to get their second shot.
Anthony made this disclosure while speaking about the vaccination programme that is currently ongoing across the country during the daily COVID-19 update.
As of Thursday, he said about 163,534 persons have received the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with a total of 21,203 second doses have been administered.
“…We want to make sure that people get their second dose within that timeframe because that’s when the vaccine would be able to work optimally,” Anthony advised, while noting that the timespan differs depending of the type of vaccine they received.
For the AstraZeneca vaccine, the second dose is required within 12 weeks after the first, while for the Sputnik V and the Sinopharm vaccines the second doses is administered within three to four weeks.
According to Anthony, Guyana is scheduled to receive 68,000 more doses of the Sputnik V vaccine shortly. The batch, he said, consists of both vaccine doses. Sputnik V uses two different vaccines for the first and second doses.
Government is hoping to inoculate over 75% of the population to achieve herd immunity.
