THE Ministry of Health has discontinued the use of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines here.
This is according to the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, who made the revelation on the side-line of an event some days ago.

When asked about vaccines and their shelf life, the Health Minister said his ministry is no longer administering the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines.
As a result, he noted that what was left of the last set of the vaccines were used. The remaining quantity expired and could not be used.

“We’re no longer giving Sputnik. So, what we have, we have utilized and we had some that expired,” he said even as he added that he did not have the direct number of vaccines that had expired at the time.
As he spoke about the shelf life of the vaccines, Dr Anthony said that it would vary, depending on the vaccine.

He indicated that some of the vaccines that have been procured are expected to expire in October of this year while others would expire in December.

“We have three vaccines that we are using. We have Sinopharm — that goes until 2023. We have a limited amount of Johnson & Johnson remaining… then the rest of the vaccines that we currently have is really Pfizer vaccines,” the Health Minister said.

The Russian-made vaccine, which was the first registered COVID-19 vaccine, was the backbone of Guyana’s COVID-19 inoculation campaign as the government was able to procure over 400,000 doses.
The vaccine used two different components for its first and second dose. Despite being used in a number of countries since its registration, Sputnik V has not yet been approved by the World Health Organization (WHO).