–Health Minister says

By Shamar Meusa
MINISTER of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has said that it is too soon to determine whether a second COVID-19 booster shot should be administered to persons in Guyana.

Speaking during Wednesday’s edition of his COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said that authorities will continue to administer first and second doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, and will consider the possibility of a fourth dose when more information becomes available.

“I think it’s too early for us to make those determinations. We have seen some of the early results that are coming out of Israel; Israel being one of the first countries to start administering the second booster dose or the fourth shot as they call it and we are now seeing some of those preliminary results,” Dr. Anthony said.

To this end, he added that vaccination efforts will be directed at persons who have not yet been vaccinated. Additionally, authorities will continue to work on getting those persons who are partially vaccinated, fully vaccinated and those who are fully vaccinated inoculated with booster shots.
He said: “The other strategy that we are working on, those who got both doses need to at least get their booster shot now… while we have these vaccines available, the challenge is not a lot of people have been coming forward.”

Dr. Anthony said that, so far, some 47,189 persons have received booster doses. Even as he mentioned that, there has been a gradual improvement in the number of persons receiving their booster dose, but, at the same time, more persons need to come forward to receive their vaccines.

As discussions across the globe have begun in relation to the administration of a fourth dose, a Reuters report, on Monday, stated that Sweden’s health agency made a recommendation for persons 80 years and above to receive a second booster shot in order to deal with the waning immunity as the Omicron variant continues to spread.

Dr. Anthony reiterated: “Second booster shots, we are not contemplating that right now. We are focusing on administering the booster shot which follows your first two doses. So, that’s where our focus is right now.”