Over 100,000 persons receive COVID-19 vaccine

Apr 23, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – The Ministry of Health announced via its Facebook page yesterday that over 100,000 individuals have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

A young woman receiving her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine

Previously, over 4,000 persons were being vaccinated daily but since the Government has dropped the age of eligibility to 18, that number has since increased to 6,000 vaccinations per day. The vaccines currently being used in the Government’s immunisation campaign are the: India’s Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine. All of these vaccines are administered in double-doses.
During his COVID-19 update yesterday, Dr. Anthony said, “Our policy with vaccination right now is to ensure that whoever is in Guyana, once you are an adult, you will get the vaccine because herd immunity cannot be achieved by excluding people. Other nationals who are working in Guyana would also receive the vaccines once they are in the country for a protracted period…”
Dr. Anthony was keen to note however that the vaccines do not prevent the COVID-19 infection but they would reduce the severity of the disease. He added that in order to prevent the virus from spreading, Guyanese need to halt its transmission. He also stressed the need to maintain social distancing, the wearing of face masks, avoiding crowded environments and proper sanitisation.