–as local authorities ramp up efforts to achieve herd immunity against COVID-19

AS part of efforts to increase the rate of immunization against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Health will be extending the hours during which persons can be vaccinated.
“This weekend, we will be implementing extended hours of work here in Georgetown… and we will start that, as an experiment to see whether or not we’ll get more people coming out,” Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, said during Wednesday’s edition of the daily COVID-19 update.
The idea, however, is not to have persons avoid the vaccination centres during the day then flock to them during the evenings or at night, he firmly posited.
“We want persons to start coming out from eight in the morning. If you come early, once there isn’t a crowd, it doesn’t take a long time to get the vaccination, so just come, let’s do this. Even if you have to take some time off, I think it’s important that you take that time off, come and get your vaccines.
“Because in the long run, it’s going to be better for you, it’s going to be better for the work environment as well, because if everybody in the environment is vaccinated, then that offers a protective effect in that particular workspace,” Dr. Anthony said.

He urged persons who haven’t yet taken the vaccine to get their first dose, and reminded recipients of the first dose to return on time to receive their second.
“Check your vaccination card, ensure that you understand when you’re due for your second dose, and come and get your second dose,” Anthony concluded.
So far, 38,467 persons have received both their first and second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, a figure equal to 7.9 per cent of Guyana’s adult population.
Further, some 172,311 individuals across Guyana have already received their first dose of one of the three vaccines – the Oxford-AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Sputnik V; this number accounts for approximately 35.4 per cent of the adult population.
“I want to encourage persons to take advantage of the services that we are offering… Because we really want to immunize as much people as possible. We have those vaccines available, and if we can get more persons to come out to the sites, that would certainly help us to take up those numbers,” Dr. Anthony said.
He explained that at some sites, nurses are present all day, with no turnout from persons to get the vaccine, which was both unfair and dissatisfying for those healthcare workers who would have been present to administer the vaccines. With the potential extension in the hours for vaccination, authorities are hopeful that this situation will change.