AS the Ministry of Health continues its vaccination campaign which targets the younger population, some 18,299 persons between the ages of 12 and 18 years have already received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The Government of Guyana received a donation of 146,250 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the United States. This donation to Guyana was part of a larger contribution of 5.5 million doses from the U.S. Government to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

The Ministry of Health began vaccinating children between the ages of 12 and 18 years on August 26, 2021, but persons will have to wait 21 days before they are eligible to receive their second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Further, according to the latest statistics, 334,333 adults or 65.2 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of one of three COVID-19 vaccines, namely, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik V.

Additionally, 173,999 persons received their second dose, representing 33.9 per cent of the population.

“It is important for people to get both doses because without the second dose you wouldn’t be fully vaccinated. The first dose had to prime your immune system, but the second dose would complete the process and, therefore, it is important that you get both doses,” Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said during Monday’s edition of the daily COVID-19 update.

He said that the ministry has registered cases where persons, who were inoculated with a single dose of the vaccine, were infected with COVID-19 and suffered severe consequences. Conversely, persons who are fully vaccinated experienced less complications after contracting the disease.

“It begs to question, why is it that people are not getting vaccinated? Because we know that if you are vaccinated then you wouldn’t get the severe form of the disease and you wouldn’t be coming into the hospital,” Dr. Anthony said.