By Telesha Ramnarine

SOME 35 teams have been trained in all 10 administrative regions of the country to ensure an effective way of deploying the COVID-19 vaccines, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony said on Saturday.
The individuals on such teams have been qualified to give information pertaining to the vaccine, do proper registration, counsel people on the vaccine’s side effects, determine whether a person is eligible for it and then use special techniques to be able to administer it.

The minister was speaking at a virtual COVID-19 vaccine symposium organised by his Ministry, in collaboration with the Guyana Press Association (GPA), which saw in attendance Chief Medical Officer, Dr Narine Singh; Director of Food and Drug Department, Dr Marlan Cole; Director of Primary Health Care Services, Ertenisa Hamilton and GPA’s President, Nazima Raghubir.

A national COVID-19 vaccination taskforce has been set up and continues to meet regularly, along with a technical working group and a central coordinating mechanism which is led by the section of the Health Ministry that does immunisation.

Dr. Anthony called attention to the fact that Guyana has great experience in immunisation and vaccination as, over the years, the country has worked with 18 different antigens that have produced between 95 and 98 per cent coverage in the target population.

“So we have a lot of trained workforce in every region. All this training has been completed and we are ready to deploy vaccines across the country,” the minister, who spoke favourably regarding the efficiency of the vaccines, said.

According to him, the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) will be helping to clear the vaccines once they arrive at the airports to ensure that they are going to have smooth passage and no delays. The idea is to ensure that the vaccines do not have to remain at the airport unnecessarily so that they can be transported efficiently to the bond where they can be properly stored.

By the end of this month going into early March, Guyana is expected to receive between 25 to 35 per cent of the vaccines that COVAX has promised for this year. COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to vaccines.

IN TALKS
Dr. Anthony further informed that Guyana has been in talks with a number of other agencies to acquire adequate vaccines for the population. The Chinese Government has already promised to donate 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines, and other bilateral arrangements also seem promising to the extent that the minister said he is hoping to make some positive announcements soon. According to him, Guyana has also been working with some of the manufacturers directly.

Dr. Anthony reminded that the 3,000 vaccines which arrived in the country lately were meant strictly for frontline health workers, and he noted that their deployment allowed the authorities to test protocols, which found success. He commended the persons who rolled out the exercise.

He further recapped that after the group of frontline healthcare workers are completed, both in the private and public sectors, the intention is to offer the vaccines to the elderly, other healthcare workers and then to the rest of the population.

According to Director of the Food and Drug Department, Marlan Cole, only the Ministry of Health is authorized at the moment to import and distribute COVID-19 vaccines in Guyana.

Meanwhile, samples suspected to have contained strains of COVID-19 which were sent overseas for testing have come back with negative results, but authorities are still concerned that the Brazilian strain could easily creep into the country due to its close proximity to Region Nine.

All ten samples that were sent to the Trinidad lab about three weeks ago show no signs of the strains here in Guyana so far, and local health experts have said that they are continuing to remain alert and will soon be sending more samples for testing.

Ministry of Health’s Chief Medical Officer told the meeting that the tests for strains are very expensive and can cost anywhere near US$1,000 for one.