— Health Minister says, as vaccination rollout intensifies from Wednesday

A SMALLER quantity of 24,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines for COVID-19, supplied to Guyana by the COVAX facility, is expected in Guyana sometime with the next two weeks, according to Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony.

“We are hopeful that will come in soon because they have given us a deadline that within the next two weeks that we’d be able to get those vaccines,” the Health Minister said on Friday, during his daily COVID-19 update.

The COVAX facility is a global mechanism that was created to ensure the equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines needed to immunise affected populations. In the initial distribution phase, 15 Caribbean countries are expected to receive just over 2.1 million doses; some countries are paying for the vaccines produced through COVAX, while other countries including Guyana will receive their first tranche of vaccines for free.

Last week, the Health Minister noted that COVAX has significantly reduced the number of vaccines it will be giving to Guyana and other Caribbean countries in the first tranche of the initial distribution phase.

Guyana, for example, is expected to receive an initial set of 100,800 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines during the initial phase. However, a later correspondence from COVAX noted that the country will receive a first set of 24,000 vaccines.

Jamaica, the first country to receive vaccines through the COVAX mechanism, received 14,400 doses out of the 124,800 allocated to the country in the initial rollout phase. Importantly, however, Jamaica has engaged COVAX as a self-financing participant.

According to information from the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO), the entire amount allocated to countries during this initial phase will be distributed by May. While the COVAX facility was created with an ambitious mandate of ensuring equitable distribution of vaccines, which is seen as the exit strategy for countries amid the pandemic, a wider issue of ‘vaccine nationalism’ has overshadowed its work.

STOCKPILING

The advanced economies of the world have been able to procure and stockpile vaccines–some securing enough to vaccinate their populations more than once, according to reports from American news agency, NPR — while many countries around the world have not been able to procure vaccines as yet, or only in much smaller quantities.

Nevertheless, Guyana has also been pursuing bilateral arrangements to garner vaccines for its population. From next week, Guyana is expected to receive weekly consignments of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia, since the country is paying for 200,000 doses of the vaccine. Since this vaccine is given in two doses, this means that 100,000 will be able to benefit. Importantly, however, the vaccines from Russia will come in batches of 50,000, weekly.

These vaccines add to the donation of 3,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines made to Guyana by Barbados from the set that country received from India, 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from China and 80,000 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from India.

The Indian High Commissioner in Guyana, Dr. K.J. Srinivasa recently told the Guyana Chronicle that the government has signalled its interest in procuring about 400,000 Covaxin vaccine doses produced in India.

On Friday, the Health Minister also noted that the local authorities are still awaiting word from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)/African Union arrangements so that that route of accessing vaccines can be finalised. Dr. Anthony also noted that there are other initiatives that CARICOM is working on.

INTENSIFIED VACCINATION ROLLOUT

On Wednesday night during a broadcast address to the nation, President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, announced that from as early as next week, persons who are 40 years and older will be able to access the COVID-19 vaccines currently being administered to frontline healthcare workers and citizens ages 60 and above.

A notice published on the Health Ministry’s Facebook page on Friday, and shared with the media, indicated that this intensified vaccination rollout will start on Wednesday, March 31.

While Guyana has not completed its vaccination of elderly persons over the age of 60 (an estimated 59,000 persons) and healthcare workers (an estimated 12,000 persons), the Health Minister noted that as the country gets more vaccines, it will be distributed to the lower age group as well. Focus, he said, will also be given to persons with comorbidities (underlying health conditions such as diabetes).

Guyana currently has enough vaccines to vaccinate about 50,000 persons so it is anticipated that as soon as the other vaccines are secured, they will be distributed across the population. Already, vaccination is ongoing in all 10 administrative regions.