80,000 people still waiting for second dose Sputnik V vaccine

Sep 16, 2021 News

– Minister now says they can wait up to six months

Kaieteur News – A total of 80,000 people are currently on the Ministry of Health’s waiting list for the second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine. This is according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who revealed for the first time yesterday that persons awaiting their second dose of the Russian-made vaccine can wait up to 180 days or six months for the vaccine to be administered.

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony.

The Minister made this disclosure during his daily COVID-19 update. He related that there is a worldwide shortage of the vaccine and went on to note that in spite of the delays in getting the second dose, persons should not be afraid to take the first dose of the Sputnik vaccine or any other vaccine to protect themselves against the deadly Coronavirus.
“I would encourage people to continue to get their first dose because, we are going to address this, everybody who took the first dose would be able to get their second,” he assured.
He revealed that the latest news from Russian (the Russian Direct Investment Fund) states that persons who took the first dose of the Sputnik V vaccine will be protected even after a longer interval of receiving their second dose.
Minister Anthony stated, “The Russian Direct Investment Fund had advised that you can prolong the interval between the first and second dose up to 90 days. Now, there is more recent advice published by Reuters on the 9th July indicating that you can actually go up to 180 days. So, [with] that interval, a lot of people who have taken their first dose would not have exhausted that long interval.”
The Gamaleya Research Centre, a Russian company which developed the Sputnik V vaccine, had previously advised that the second dose should be given four weeks after the first dose was administered. But lately, the Company stated that the gap between the two shots of the Sputnik V dose can be extended up to 180 days and it will remain effective.
Thus far, 337,030 adults (65.7 percent) of the adult population have taken their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 175,037 persons or (34.1 percent) are now fully vaccinated against the disease. Another 18,862 (25.9 percent) children between ages 12-17 have been administered the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

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