AS Guyana aims to achieve herd immunity by the end of 2021, more than 27,000 people have received both doses of their COVID-19 vaccines and can be considered to be fully vaccinated once two weeks have passed since they each received their second dose.

According to information provided to the Guyana Chronicle by the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, a total of 27,875 persons or 5.7 per cent of the targetted 500,000 adult population have received both doses of vaccine as of Saturday.

Additionally, it was noted that a total of 166,950 people or 34.3 per cent of the targetted adult population have received their first dose of one of the three COVID-19 vaccines distributed locally, as of Saturday.

Previously, the Health Minister explained that vaccinations for COVID-19 are important since these vaccines have been proven to reduce the risk of people contracting the more severe and possibly, life-threatening symptoms of the COVID-19 disease.

It is important to note that while it was initially found that the more severe and life-threatening forms of the disease were manifesting in older people, the Ministry of Health has reported that the younger population was also being impacted.

While addressing the nation recently, President Dr. Irfaan Ali alluded to the Government’s intention to procure additional COVID-19 vaccines to ensure that they can be administered to each adult.

“Our plan is to ensure that we take this country and economy back to normalcy as soon as possible,” President Ali said, underscoring that the Government will invest significant resources towards achieving this goal.

He also addressed concerns that were raised about the unavailability of the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccines. To this end, he explained that the vaccination rollout was strategically planned to ensure that the corresponding second dose would be available to each person who already received a ‘jab’.

In addition to about 100 fixed vaccination sites across the country, the local health authorities have been conducting various outreach sessions to make vaccination process easier for people.

Over the weekend, the Ministry of Health had a number of mobile sites across the country. These included sites at various locations in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); in Moruca and Port Kaituma, Region One (Barima-Waini); North Ruimveldt, Georgetown, Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and, at various locations on the East Coast and East Bank of Demerara.