THE Government of Guyana is intensifying efforts to curb the spread of the COVID-19 virus which continues to claim lives, despite aggressive measures to bring the virus under control. Full credit must be given to the PPP/C administration for making an adequate number of vaccines available to all eligible Guyanese. Unfortunately, there is a marked incongruence between that desire by the government to vaccinate the full cohort of the adult population and the response by the public to take advantage of the vaccination programme.

This apparent reluctance is all the more unfortunate given the positive correlation between infection rates and the unvaccinated segment of the population. To date, the majority of those persons who have died as a result of the COVID-19 virus were not fully vaccinated.

The Guyana Government is aiming to have at least 500,000 adults vaccinated in order for the country to reach a stage of herd immunity and no effort is being spared to ensure that there is an adequate supply of the vaccines to make that objective a reality. We are still behind in terms of reaching that goal of herd immunity. Currently, just about 27 per cent of the adult population has been fully vaccinated. With the attainment of herd immunity, the spread of the disease would decrease, which would eventually set the stage for a gradual return to normalcy to the country and by extension the lives of Guyanese.

Meanwhile, Guyana is expected to receive yet another shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine in August, this time the single-dose Johnson and Johnson which is manufactured in the United States. This will further strengthen the country’s already robust vaccination drive and will add to the menu of vaccine options which include the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and the Sputnik V.

It is worth emphasising that these vaccines are scientifically validated in terms of safety and efficacy in halting the spread of the virus and more importantly, in preventing deaths from the virus. The salient point to note is that such infections and deaths were largely preventable, if only the guidelines and protocols of the Health Ministry were adhered to.

What is urgently required by the unvaccinated is an immediate attitudinal and behavioural change towards the vaccines which have been scientifically proven to save lives and prevent the spread of the dreaded virus. In some countries where there are sharp spikes in infection rates due to a slowdown in vaccination rates, governments were forced to make COVID-19  jabs mandatory for health workers and other high-risk professionals.

Vaccines, it has to be said, are not available in unlimited quantities and have to be acquired at a substantial financial cost. More importantly, they have short potency and any delay in utilisation within its prescribed storage life would not only be a financial loss to the country, but at a more fundamental level, a loss to people in other parts of the world who desperately needed the vaccines but simply could not get them due to cost considerations.

Guyana is not one of those countries where vaccination against the virus is mandatory, even though there are some who have expressed the view that such an approach may be necessary especially among health care workers. The government, so far, is hoping that good sense would prevail and all Guyanese would do the right thing, not only to protect themselves and their families against the virus, but the society at large.

According to Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, the government is taking nothing for granted and is going on the assumption that all the possible strains of the virus, including the dreaded Delta variant are in the country. Such assumption, it must be said, is yet to be fully validated since, as pointed out by Minister Anthony, the only method to ascertain whether or not other variants of the virus are in the country is through genomic sequencing, which is a scientific analysis capable of detecting if the disease is different from its initial form.