29.6 per cent population fully vaccinated
– Minister Anthony
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, says approximately 29.6 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.
The Minister made this announcement during his COVID-19 Update on Monday.
Dr. Anthony said that as of Sunday, “We have had about 267,150 persons who received their first dose of the vaccine; that would be approximately 54.9 per cent of our population.
“As for the second dose of the vaccine, we have seen about 144,324 persons, which is estimated about 29.6 per cent of our population.”
The Minister said these figures indicate the need for the Government to strengthen its vaccination campaign countrywide.
Earlier this month, the Government issued gazetted COVID-19 Measures which outlined new restrictions for unvaccinated persons seeking certain Government services. The guidelines state that unvaccinated persons must make an appointment to access those services.
In addition, persons who wish to dine-in at restaurants must produce their vaccination and identification cards. The National COVID-19 Taskforce and the Police would also be conducting random checks at various places and restaurants and persons found flouting the Measures would face the law. This, the Minister indicated, was all in an effort to protect the population.
Dr. Anthony said travellers to Guyana would need to be vaccinated and produce a negative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test before entering the country.
“I think that the only change we have for the guidelines for persons travelling to Guyana is that we also now require them to have been vaccinated and this means that they should have at least one dose of their vaccine and so we are not saying fully vaccinated, but we are saying vaccinated meaning to have at least one dose of your vaccine,” he said.
However, vaccination is not a requirement for travellers below the age of 18 years.
“In the future, when we start doing vaccination for children… then at some point, we will probably look at asking for vaccination for children. But as of now, that’s not a requirement.” Earlier this year, the Ministry commenced its vaccination campaign after receiving a donation of vaccines to protect the populace from Covid.