THE Ministry of Health will continue administration of the second dose of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine from tomorrow.

This was announced by Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, during Monday’s COVID-19 update. He said administration of the vaccines will continue for those who received their first doses in April and will be extended to those persons who received theirs in May.

The period to receive the second dose of the Russian vaccine is between four to 12 weeks. As such, persons who received their first doses in April and May are encouraged to visit the vaccination sites to receive their second doses.

“We know a lot of persons who took their first dose. And they, some of them are now becoming eligible for their second dose…. We have been following that protocol so those persons, as of last week, as you would recall we have started giving the second dose to those persons who got their first dose in April. We’ll continue that process from tomorrow; anybody remaining from April will be able to access their second dose,” Dr. Anthony said.

The minister is urging persons to visit any one of the vaccination sites to receive their second “jabs.” He noted that in addition to the Russian vaccine, the ministry is also administering the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and the Chinese Sinopharm.

Guyana had experienced a delay in receiving the shipment of the second component after there was a global shortage due to the spike in the Delta variant. The Sputnik V vaccine has proven most effective against this variant.

To date, 246, 716 individuals have received the first dose of a COVID vaccine, while 130,429 persons are fully vaccinated. (DPI)