–43 per cent fully vaccinated

APPROXIMATELY 90 per cent of the ranks in the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) have received the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 43 per cent have received the second dose.
Also related to the joint services, almost 60 per cent of the officers and staff of the Guyana Prison Services (GPS) have received both doses of a vaccine.

Specific to the GDF, as frontline workers who form part of the national security infrastructure, army troops have been active enforcers of the COVID-19 guidelines. Hence, every effort has been made to ensure their protection, with the latest being a COVID-19 vaccination programme which was implemented back in April.

Chief-of-Staff, Brigadier Godfrey Bess, led by example and was among the first set of persons in the force to be vaccinated.

To date, more than 325,000 Guyanese or 63.4 per cent of Guyana’s adult population have received their first dose. Of that number, about 170,125 or 33.2 per cent have received both doses of the vaccine and are now fully vaccinated.

Guyana currently has a vibrant vaccination campaign ongoing which offers the COVID-19 vaccines free of charge to citizens from 12 years old.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are available for children from 12 to 17 years old, while persons 18 years and older have the option of choosing from the Sputnik v, Sinopharm, and Astrezeneca vaccines.