THE Government of Guyana will benefit from 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccines which, along with the other vaccine types will go a far way in terms of arriving at the position of herd immunity. The vaccines, according to Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, are approved by the US Food and Drug Department (FDA) and are expected to arrive in the country in a week’s time.

This is second batch of vaccines received through the Covax mechanism, which is a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation and the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF). The idea behind the COVAX facility is to ensure the equitable distribution of vaccines against COVID-19.

Guyana has already received a supply of the vaccines from COVAX in May this year and this additional allocation will be a great boost to the vaccination drive in the country. The country is one of 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are receiving vaccines at no cost from this facility.

It will be recalled that Guyana had benefitted from a donation of 146,250 Pfizer shots earlier as a donation from the United States which are being used to vaccinate adolescents. Only recently, the government was able to source another shipment of the Sputnik V vaccines to allow for those persons who would have been awaiting their second shot of the vaccines.

Guyana is well-positioned to vaccinate its entire cohort of adult population, something which many countries are still to achieve. This speaks well of President, Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali, and his PPP/C administration. The approach taken in the procurement of vaccines and other supplies has been highly proactive. So far, the response by the public has been encouraging.

The vaccination programme is clearly picking up momentum with nearly 10,000 persons being inoculated Wednesday last, the highest vaccination rate in any single day.

The message is sinking in, due in part to a number of high profile deaths in the past days involving persons in the prime of their youth and in their professional lives. It is unfortunate that some individuals still seem to entertain doubts about the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, despite the fact that the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths are from among the unvaccinated, a trend that sadly still continues until today.

The good thing is that Guyanese on the whole are much more aware of the dangers posed by the COVID-19 virus and are simply not taking chances. A total of 358,237 persons which amounted to nearly 70 per cent of the adult population have already taken their first dose of the vaccines while 192,672 or 37.6 per cent took both doses.

We are not doing badly in terms of both the supply of vaccines and uptake levels but there cannot be any room for complacency. Scientists are already on the lookout for new coronavirus variants beyond Delta, even as the Delta continues to be worrisome.

Tests are currently being done on suspected cases of new variants such as the Lambada and the Mu variants which, according to experts, can strike the unvaccinated and in some cases the vaccinated at a much faster speed than the COVID-19 virus.

Getting more people vaccinated against COVID-19 is critical in the overall response to the pandemic as large groups of the unvaccinated give the virus more opportunity to spread and mutate into new variants. As such efforts must be stepped up to prevent new variants from emerging, in addition to bringing an end to the current COVID-19 strain, which has already taken a heavy toll on the lives and livelihoods of people globally.