–Health Minister warns

THERE is a phased approach to the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, which has a focus on immunising the most at-risk persons first, and according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, anyone found “jumping the line” will face stiff penalties.

Following the acquisition of 80,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from India on Sunday, and another 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China last week, Guyana has 100,000 newer vaccines to roll out. Since these vaccines are given in two doses, this means that 50,000 persons can be vaccinated and protected from the severe effects of COVID-19. As per the phased approach to Guyana’s rollout of the COVID-19 vaccines, frontline healthcare workers will continue to receive theirs, while the next persons in line for vaccines will be elderly persons over the age of 60, followed by persons with co-morbidities (other underlying health conditions such as diabetes).

“With these 50,000 people that we will be immunising, we will require stricter documentation; we will be asking people to walk with their ID cards, so that we can verify who they are, and take the relevant information,” Dr. Anthony said on Monday.

He, however, hastened to add, “If there are persons who are jumping the queue, and we discover them, then they are going to face stiff penalties, because we don’t want people to jump the queue.”

The minister’s statements follow the recent revelation that a local city businessman received a dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), though these vaccines were only being given to frontline healthcare workers at the time.

Previously, Minister Anthony had highlighted that the “leakage” of the vaccine dose is “a total breach of protocols.” He’d also highlighted that an investigation into the matter had been launched, with the aim of uncovering how this breach occurred, and how the vaccine administration processes can be strengthened to prevent similar occurrences.

In accordance with the phased approach of vaccination, other essential workers, such as teachers, will receive their vaccines after the aforementioned groups.

Dr Anthony noted that in the second phase of the vaccination rollout, elderly persons 50 years and above, and members of the Joint Services will receive their vaccines, while in Phase Three, all persons 18 years and older will receive theirs. During Phase Four, the last phase, children will receive their vaccines. Children are scheduled to receive vaccines last, since none of the vaccines currently available can immunise them, and trials are still being done.

“We want to ensure that we are able to prioritise these vaccines to people who need them the most, and who are most at risk,” the Health Minister emphasised, adding: “Eventually, we’ll get vaccines for everyone in the country, but at this stage, as we only have a limited amount of 100,000 doses now, we want to ensure that we give it to the right priority groups.”