SOME 169,981 persons have already received their first dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm or Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has said. He said this during Tuesday’s edition of the daily COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI).
The number of persons who took the first dose of either of the three vaccines account for 34.9 per cent of the adult population in Guyana, while 34,317 individuals, equivalent to seven per cent of the adult population, have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
This means that 20.1 per cent of persons who took the first dose of the vaccine have taken the second one as well.
“I think, over the last 24 hours, we would have seen a good pickup, in terms of people coming out to get their second and first dose. So yesterday [Monday], we saw close to 7,000 immunisations, and we’d like that number to go up even higher today [Tuesday],” the Health Minister said.

In addition, the minister has advised persons who have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to be proactive in getting their second dose.
“Don’t wait until we come back to your community. If there is a neighbouring site where they’re doing vaccinations, come to it so that you can get your second dose,” he urged. Minister Anthony noted that it would be undesirable to have persons receiving their second doses at a period later than recommended, or not having them at all.
He said too that persons returning for their second doses of the vaccine can receive their booster doses a day or two before or after the date that it is due to be administered, in the instance that the scheduled date poses any inconvenience.
“What we don’t want is for people to miss their doses completely, so we are encouraging all those persons who have received their first dose to ensure that they come back for the second dose, because unless you get both doses, you are not going to be fully immunised, and that’s important,” Dr. Anthony related.