Over 6,000 benefit in first phase of COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Over 6,000 benefit in first phase of COVID-19 vaccination campaign – Dr. Carpen

Mar 16, 2021 News

GPHC Cardiologist, Dr. Mahendra Carpen.

Kaieteur News – At least, 6,500 people have so far benefited from the roll out of the COVID-19 immunisation campaign since it commenced last month.
This was revealed during a Kaieteur Radio interview with Dr. Mahendra Carpen, Head of Medical Services and Cardiology at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
In his capacity as a frontline health worker, Dr. Carpen was among the first batch of persons to benefit from the roll out of the first dosage of the vaccines.
He told Kaieteur Radio that his immunisation process has been smooth so far with little to no side effects.
He explained that this is normal since after receiving any type of vaccine, a person may experience mild to moderate discomfort.
“This is pretty normal; a slight chill or headache which will generally go away within 24 hours,” Dr. Carpen said.
He explained too that the administration of the vaccine is being done in a very organised way.
According to Dr. Carpen, the vaccines are being rolled out in a phased approach to ensure that the most exposed or vulnerable groups of the population benefit first.
He noted that the first phase is healthcare workers. The second would be persons over 60 years and those with co-morbidities or underlying conditions “… then others would get in the next stage.”
At this point, Dr. Carpen noted, most persons only received their first dose of the vaccines—a second dose is to be administered within the space of three months.
“The second dose is equally as important as the first one as it will complete the immunisation boost against COVID-19…” he emphasized.
So far, Guyana has benefited from thousands of vaccines to ensure all healthcare professionals are vaccinated before rolling out the immunisation campaign to the wider population.
Prior to the roll out of the immunisation campaign, the Ministry started an education drive on the vaccine. At the time, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, had disclosed that the Ministry was explaining to the public the types of vaccines available and how they work.
“The team that is working to do the immunisation, they are well schooled in all the different things relating to the vaccine. As part of the immunisation process, there is a very strong education component, so anyone who comes to get their vaccine will first have to go through several minutes of getting the right information pertaining to the vaccine.”
Just recently, it was announced that Members of Parliament (MP) will have the opportunity to be vaccinated from a recent consignment of COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Anthony said that, “We are going to consider that during this current run because there are not many parliamentarians, we think we will be able to cover them. So, those parliamentarians who would be interested in getting their vaccine, we will make those vaccines available in this round.”
Guyana received 80,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from India. This, coupled with the 20,000 doses of Sinopharm the Government received from China last Tuesday, brings the total number to 100,000 doses. Both vaccines are being distributed across the regions to ensure that every eligible person is immunised.
“They’re both within the same range of effectiveness and they do a good job in protecting people from getting the infection and preventing people from getting the more severe form of the disease so, I think looking at the data, they’re equally effective,” Dr. Anthony said.

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