ON Tuesday, June 22, the Ministry of Health achieved a milestone in its COVID-19 vaccination campaign after 101, 246 persons or 20.8% of the country’s population were recorded as being fully immunised against the deadly virus.
These persons would have received both doses of one of the three available COVID-19 vaccines (the Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm), Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, revealed during his COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI), on Wednesday.
“I think this is a milestone worth celebrating, because approximately 20% of our population is now fully immunised. And, as we have said before, in persons with both doses of the vaccines, we have not seen them coming to the hospital, meaning that they don’t get the severe form of the infection, nor have they been admitted to any of our ICUs, or died from COVID. So, I think that’s a very important thing for people to understand,” he stressed.

It was also revealed that 229,053 persons have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is equivalent to some 47.1% of Guyana’s adult population.
Given this information, the minister has urged persons who are due for their second dose of the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines, to return while those are still in stock. He reminded them that one dose was not enough to protect them against the severity of the virus.
While Guyana is trying to secure second doses of the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine as quickly as possible, Dr Anthony urged persons to go out and get their first dose of the vaccine, as that is still in supply. He had previously surmised that the delay in the vaccine shipment might be due to Moscow’s recent spike in the Delta variant of COVID-19.