LATER this week, Guyana is expected to have standard guidelines on when persons who have been infected with the disease, COVID-19, will be eligible to receive their vaccine doses, according to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

During his daily COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI), he explained that after someone recovers from COVID-19, the antibodies created as part of the body’s immune response to fight off the coronavirus would be circulating in the body. Once those antibodies are present, chances of becoming re-infected are quite low.

Due to the scarcity of vaccines, he noted that the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that persons who recovered could wait for about six months before getting their first ‘jab’. This, he explained, is particularly important in “resource-poor setting”.

“In other settings where they have more resources that are available, the trend has been if you want vaccines, there is nothing stopping you from getting the vaccine,” Dr. Anthony explained. In Guyana, however, he noted that local experts are working with the health authorities to review the guidelines for vaccinating those persons who recovered from the disease.

Dr. Anthony related that about 20,000 persons have been vaccinated locally. Guyana’s vaccination rollout is occurring in all 10 administrative regions whereby healthcare workers and elderly persons over the age of 60 are being inoculated.

So far, Guyana has been able to secure 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados; 80,000 doses of the same vaccine from India and 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China. Beginning next week, the country is expected to receive 200,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia.

Dr. Anthony commented that the vaccination rollout has been quite good so far. He related that in some areas, members of the community have been integrally involved in organising the target populations, specifically the elderly persons, and he encouraged other communities to follow suit.

“As we rollout this week, our plans are that we will increase the amount of sites that we have. Apart from those fixed sites that we have setup, we have been able to work with our healthcare workers at the health centres and you would see us now shifting to a lot of the health centres across the country,” the Health Minister noted.