Over 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines administered to date – Ministry

Feb 13, 2022 News

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Kaieteur News – Friday marked one year since the Government commenced its COVID-19 vaccination programme, and to date, a total of 850,735 doses have been administered to individuals countrywide. This was announced by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, who noted during his COVID-19 update on Friday that “we are one of the countries in the Caribbean that would have vaccinated a substantial portion of its population.”
On February 10, last year, the President announced the arrival of 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Guyana’s first batch of COVID-19 vaccines, which came as a donation from Barbados.

As many can recall, when the programme started, priority was placed on frontline workers first, the elderly and persons with co-morbidities.
Since then, the government was able to source almost all the available vaccines to help with the fight against the virus. The vaccines currently being used in the rollout programme are AstraZeneca, Johnson and Johnson (J&J), Moderna, Pfizer, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Sputnik V.
With over 800,000 doses of vaccine administered to individuals 12 years and older, health officials have been able to disburse, on average, a total of 2,330 vaccines per day.
In providing a breakdown of these vaccines per age cohort, the Minister noted that the older population has a higher inoculation rate than that of the younger age group.
“When we look at the vaccine, we administer so far in terms of 60 years and over first dose, we are at 83.1 percent, second dose we are at 73.1 percent and for the booster shot we are 20.6 percent,” he shared on Friday.
In terms of the 40 to 59 age cohort, 82.8 percent of persons received their first dose, 67.7 percent received their second dose while 10.1 percent received booster shots. As it relates to the 18 to 39 age category, he noted that the first dose stands at 80.8 percent, second dose at 56.5 percent, and the booster shot at 4.6 percent.
For the children population, ages 12 to 17, Minister Anthony noted that 45.3 percent of this population received their first dose and 32.4 percent received their second dose. For this age cohort, their vaccination programme began in August, last year in order to facilitate a safe return to face-to-face learning. No booster shots have been given to children in this age group.
Notably, the government is still trying to source a vaccine for children five to 11 years.
With regard the regional breakdown of vaccines administered, the Minister said that Regions Seven, Four, Two, Five and 10 are still lagging behind in the vaccination programme.
He noted however, that Region Nine has exceeded in terms of first dose, adding that 85.6 percent of individuals there have been also been vaccinated with their second dose.
“In fact, they have gone more than a 100 percent in their first dose, meaning that they have given out a lot more and that might be because persons are coming over from Brazil, who would have access to the vaccine,” he stated.
As it relates to the other regions and their figures, he said that Region Eight has 63.2 percent of persons with first dose and 48.9 percent with second dose. In Region One, the administration of the first dose stands at 61.2 percent with 31.5 percent for the second dose while the first dose in Region Six is at 48.8 percent with the second dose being 33 percent.
In Region Three, the first dose is at 46.2 percent and the second dose is at 33.8 percent, in Region Five, the first dose is at 44.2 percent and the second dose is at 35.8 percent.
The first dose in Region Four, according to the Minister, stands at 41.7 percent with 29.9 percent being recorded for the second dose, which he noted is below the average. For Region Two, 41.5 percent of the population has received the first dose and 29.9 percent received the second dose while in Region Seven, the first dose is at 36 percent and the second dose is at 25.9 percent.
In Region 10, which has the lowest vaccination rate in the country, the Minister said that only 12.3 percent of the residents received their first dose, and 6.9 percent received their second dose.
Appreciative that many people have been inoculated against the disease, the Minister expressed his gratitude to countries such as India, China, the United Kingdom, Spain, the United States of America, and COVAX for their assistance and donations. “Because of this assistance, we have been able to have a strong vaccination programme,” he commented.
Further, he expressed sincere thanks to the health workers who have been involved in the vaccination programme. The Minister’s sentiments were echoed by Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.
Dr. Ramsammy via a statement explained that the President had declared that the country’s goal is for more than 70 percent of the population to be fully vaccinated by the end of June this year.
“As we mark one year since the COVID-19 vaccination programme started, we are in a position to achieve this. I am hopeful that we can surpass the goal of 70 percent. The President and the Government of Guyana have done their part. We the citizens must do our part,” he said.

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