MINISTER of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has said that an additional 100,000 doses of the American Food and Drug Administration (FDA)–approved Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive in Guyana next week, as the country continues its fight against the deadly COVID-19.

“We are expected to get a number of vaccines…100,000 doses of vaccines through COVAX on October 4 and it’s the first time that we’ll be receiving the vaccine from COVAX. Before this, we got AstraZeneca,” Minister Anthony said during Thursday’s COVID-19 update.

He said that on Wednesday, the country had recorded its highest vaccination rate in a given day, with some 9,946 persons taking either the first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Of that number 1,029 were adults and 530 children, who took their first dose. In terms of second dose, 6,655 persons were adults and 1,732 children.

Dr. Anthony commended the vaccination staff for a job well done, and also the public for being patient and maintaining order at the vaccination sites.

“I want to again commend the staff for being out there and working hard yesterday [Wednesday] and I want to commend the public because although people had to wait, they did so in an orderly way and that facilitated everybody getting their vaccine,” he said.

A total of 358,237 or 69.8 per cent of the country’s adult population have taken the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while, 192,672 or 37.6 per cent took both doses. Meanwhile, 24,194 or 33.2 per cent of the children population received the Pfizer vaccine.

The government had received 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. This specific vaccine is earmarked for children ages 12 to 18 years.

The vaccine given to Guyana was part of a donation of 5.5 million doses from the United States Government to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). This donation was intended to lend support to the ongoing battle against the COVID-19 pandemic.