Dear Editor,
Slightly more than a year ago on February 11, 2021 Guyana’s vaccination programme was launched. Below is a graph of where we are thirteen months later.
As of March 13, 2022:
With the possible lone exception of ‘Adult 1st Dose’ the percentages of all other categories are admittedly high and to its credit the Ministry of Health has launched at least two noteworthy initiatives designed to increase vaccinations. The first with the problematic adolescent population: “Over the next couple of weeks we will be intensifying our efforts with the Ministry of Education in the hope we can take up these num-bers.”(https://newsroom.gy/2022/02/14/if-more-people-take-jabs-govt-may-remove-more-covid-restrictions-health-minister/) and the second for the country overall, Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, announced on January 16th:
“I am hoping that by the end of March that 60 percent of the Guyanese population are fully vaccinated. Our target is that 70 per cent of our population by the end of April are fully vaccinated,”(https://guyanachronicle.com/2022/01/16/covid-19-govt-hopes-to-fully-vaccinate-70-of-population-by-end-of-april/). At that time the fully vaccinated rate was 42.13% [estimated population of 772,975, admittedly low but until the census is completed in 2022 and shared with the population later all figures are simply conjecture and so this one will serve our purpose as well as any]. Today, almost two months later that figure is 46.21%.
As Guyana moves toward full re-opening of the country, vaccines remain the single most important and effective tool in its growing arsenal against COVID-19. The vaccine is most effective after the third shot – the booster shot. Yet, as the graph shows, over 76% of persons eligible for the booster shot have yet to take it. Guyanese should encourage and remind others to get their booster shots when they become eligible. A highly vaccinated and immunised population is possibly the single best safeguard against any future sub-variant or variant.
Yours faithfully,
Ellis Dee
