Although Guyana is still without second doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, the Minister of Health is still encouraging persons to go for their first dose as it does provide some protection against the COVID-19 virus.
Dr Frank Anthony offered this advice during his COVID-19 update yesterday where he noted that there are no persons here who have been administered their first dose and have passed the 12-week period to receive their second dose.
“They are still within the time period when they can get that second dose and after that first dose, your efficacy is generally about 79% after a single dose and when you get that booster shot, in between the four weeks to 12 weeks, when you get that booster shot it goes up to about 97%,” he informed.
The minister added that even without the booster shot, that first dose of the Sputnik V will provide persons with some protection. To support this, he referred to a study recently published in Argentina which found that one dose of the vaccine is 79% effective in protecting people against infection and 88% effective in preventing hospitalisation.
“So the point here is that we do have the first dose of the Sputnik Vaccine that is available, I am encouraging people to go and get the first dose and we are working to bring in the second dose,” Anthony said whilst assuring the public that persons will get their second dose within the stipulated time frame. However the minister made no mention of how soon Guyana will be receiving the second doses that have been out of stock in the country for over a month.
He did however say that although one dose does provide protection, the government is committed to giving both doses of the vaccines and is still working with the suppliers to ensure those second doses are in Guyana soon.
The minister also informed that the authorities still have the AstraZeneca vaccines available at all sites for both first and second doses. He added that if persons would like to receive that vaccine they can go to any site and get their shot.
In addition to this, the distribution of the Sinopharm vaccine is being restarted and both doses are available. The Minister stated that a total of 232,599 persons have so far received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 107,421 persons have been fully immunised as of Monday.
