GUYANA will receive an additional 98,000 COVID-19 vaccines this week, as the country continues to expand its vaccination rollout, according to Adviser to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy.

On Saturday, Dr. Ramsammy said that the country is aiming to encourage vaccination among additional people, particularly in Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and 10 (Upper Demerara- Upper Berbice) where the vaccination uptake has been less than in the other regions.

Region 10, specifically, has had the lowest vaccination uptake – at only about 10 per cent of the region’s population.

“We continue to vaccinate at our health centres and at the hospital but in addition to doing outreach sessions and meeting people at their home,” Dr. Ramsammy said, adding: “We will continue to go into the outreaches and into communities and so on because we are not giving up.”

To bolster this vaccination campaign, he highlighted that Guyana will be receiving an additional 98,000 vaccines this week. These vaccines will include 60,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and an additional 38,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility.

In total, Guyana purchased 200,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine following a purchase agreement through the Government of Russia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through the COVAX facility, Guyana was expected to receive an initial set of 100,800 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.