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Guyana gets another donation of 80,000 vaccines from India
From left: Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony; Prime Minister,
Mark Phillips; Indian High Commissioner, Dr. K.J. Srinivasa and Minister
of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd.
Kaieteur News – Guyana has received another donation of the Oxford-AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in 80,000 doses from the Government of India.
The vaccines arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport yesterday and were received by Prime Minister, Mark Phillips; Foreign Affairs Minister, Hugh Todd; Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony; and the Indian High Commissioner, Dr. K.J. Srinivasa.
It is the third batch of vaccines to arrive in Guyana.
The first batch was donated by Barbados in early February, which saw 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines arriving in Guyana and was used to kick-start the first stage of the country’s immunization campaign. The first to be vaccinated were frontline health workers, who were allocated 2,800 doses and the remaining 200 doses were given to workers at the CARICOM Secretariat.
The second batch of vaccines came as a donation from the Government of China. That donation saw 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine arriving in Guyana, further boosting the immunization campaign. Upon its arrival last week, the Health Minister had stated that the vaccination of frontline health workers would have been initiated in all 10 administrative regions and with the donation of the 20,000, the government is hoping to cover as many people in frontline health as possible.
The second stage will see the vaccination of the elderly persons, 60 years and older. The Health Ministry will be collaborating with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, using their comprehensive database, which is used to distribute pension throughout Guyana, to identify the elderly persons eligible for vaccination.
It was also disclosed that teachers would be next in line for vaccination as well.
Dr. Anthony was quoted as saying, “Indeed, we have been looking at other opportunities to procure more vaccines. With the vaccine we currently have, we have about 100,000 now and that will help us to immunize at least about 50,000 people. And so, this is not going to be enough and so definitely we have to be able to procure more vaccines.”
At the press conference following the arrival of the vaccines, the Indian High Commissioner said that the donation of the vaccines is a mere gift from the Government of India and they will expect nothing in return. “I want to stress here that India donates these vaccines with nothing in demand (from) the country.
We do not ask for any quid pro quos. India is donating the vaccines in a spirit of collaboration, in a spirit of friendship, and in a spirit of helping our friends to acquire these vaccines across the world,” he noted.
The crate of vaccines
India has earmarked around 570,000 doses of the vaccine for distribution across the Caribbean region.
Additionally, more vaccines are set to arrive from the COVID-19 Vaccine Global Access (COVAX) Facility, which has recently initiated its global rollout of vaccines. Guyana will receive some 104,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines free of cost from COVAX.
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