– int’l experts providing additional support

By Vishani Ragobeer

A 20-person team of professionals, drawn from both the public and private sectors, will be spearheading the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, which are expected to arrive here in the coming weeks, according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

In a recent interview with the Sunday Chronicle, Dr. Anthony said that a number of persons were contacted and asked to lend their expertise to a team that would be responsible for the importation, storage, management and distribution of the vaccines.

In December, Dr. Anthony announced that this vaccination team, which is an extension to the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), would be made known to the public. He, however, told this newspaper subsequently that getting responses from the targeted individuals have been a challenge. Though he did not provide any names, the Health Minister did disclose that there are 20 persons on the team.

“It’s a large group of people and the idea is that for specific areas dealing with vaccination and so forth, we’ll have subgroups that would work on these things,” the Health Minister explained.

In addition to these persons who will be serving on this vaccination team or task force, the minister also highlighted that Guyana has been receiving assistance from professionals overseas who are experts in immunology.

These international experts, who have been providing consultancy services to Guyana, are drawn from the Mayo Clinic medical facilities in Florida and from Harvard University. The experts at Harvard have been working specifically with the local surveillance team and looking at the dynamics of the disease.

“We have a number of experts who have been giving us support, but to be full time with us (on the vaccination task force), that would be a challenge,” Dr. Anthony related, but emphasised, “We can draw down on that expertise though.”

During one of his recent COVID-19 updates with the Department of Public Information (DPI), the Health Minister had noted that Guyana applied for a grant from the COVAX facility to garner expertise on cold chain storage. COVAX is a global initiative geared at accelerating the development and manufacture of the COVID-19 vaccines, and then providing them in a guaranteed rapid, fair and equitable manner to those countries which need them.

Dr. Anthony said that Guyana’s grant application was acknowledged and the country is waiting on confirmation stating this grant has been approved. This grant will be used to get someone who understands cold chain storage, specifically ultra-cold chain storage. This expertise carries a cost of approximately US $50,000.

The minister indicated that the country is expecting a favourable response and explained that if the vaccines are not stored in the appropriate temperatures, they could spoil and therefore be wasted.

The first set of vaccines Guyana will be receiving will be through the COVAX facility; those vaccines will be free and the first three per cent will be used for the frontline health workers and the next tranche, about 17 per cent, will be used for older persons and persons with higher risks, such as those with co-morbidities.

It is important to develop appropriate cold chain storage since the country does not yet know which vaccine it will be receiving. The U.S. drug company, Moderna, had announced that its vaccine, the mRNA-1273, from Biotech, could be stored in a standard refrigerator with temperatures of two to eight degrees Celsius (36 degrees to 46 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 days. But, the Pfizer vaccines must be stored at very cold temperatures of minus 70 to 80 degrees.

The minister emphasised that the country does not have prior experience dealing with those ultra-cold temperatures. Several companies have already submitted bids to the National Procurement and Tender Administration Board (NPTAB) for the construction of walk-in cold storage facilities.

Dr Anthony also said that vaccination sites are being expanded and healthcare workers are being trained to aid with the vaccination of the adults, targeted for some time this year.