Guyana has so far received over 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility.
This was revealed by the Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony during his COVID-19 update on Tuesday as he noted that Guyana, through the COVAX AMC component, has received a total of 305,420 doses of vaccines free of cost.
“To date we have received from COVAX 305,420 doses that would allow us to vaccinate at least 152,710 persons,” he said.
He explained that COVAX is made up of two components — the AMC countries which receive vaccines free of cost and the other component where countries pay to acquire vaccines.
Additionally, when COVAX initially started its allocation of vaccines to various countries, the facility looked at getting these countries vaccines for approximately 10 percent of their population. These targets have now been revised or changed.
“Initially when COVAX first started, they were looking at getting vaccines to all countries participating to about 10% of their population and at that time in the early stages the priority was to give to older people and frontline workers,” Anthony said during the update.
In keeping with the World Health Organization guideline to have all countries have at least 40% of its population vaccinated by December of this year, COVAX has revised its initial allocations to ensure that countries receive enough vaccines to meet the quota.
A global initiative, COVAX, or COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access, coordinates international resources to enable low-to-middle-income countries equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines. It is directed by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), and the World Health Organization.
