Guyana gets 3000 AstraZeneca vaccines from Barbados
-frontline workers, CARICOM officials to benefit first
Miister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony, this afternoon, received 3,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados to help Guyana’s fight against COVID-19.
Dr. Anthony and Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Narine Singh, received the vaccines, which arrived around 13:30 hours at the Eugene. F. Correia International Airport, Ogle.
The donation was the fulfilment of a promise made by Prime Minister, Hon. Mia Mottley to her regional counterparts. Barbados is among the first countries within the Region to receive vaccines from India. From it’s quota, Prime Minister Mottley offered Guyana 3,000 doses, which will be adminsitered to 1,500 persons.
“We are extremely grateful and, as you can see, we have just received these doses and we will start administering as soon as possible. The vaccine is the AstraZeneca vaccine and it is from the Serum Institute in India,” Minister Anthony said.
The expert committee on vaccines of the World Health Organization met on Tuesday and gave the greenlight for the AstraZeneca vaccine to be listed for emergency use.
Dr Anthony said frontline workers will be among the first to benefit from the donation.
“Tomorrow, we will have an exercise. We will get the persons from the Georgetown hospital and those in charge of the Ocean View facility and will start with those persons because they are really the ones who interact with persons,” he said.
Earlier today, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced the arrival of the vaccines. From the batch, 100 doses will go to the CARICOM Secretariat and the remaining 1,400 doses to frontline workers.
The Head of State expressed gratitiude to Prime Mniister Mottley and the People of Barbados for their generosity.
The President said in the coming weeks, Guyana is set to receive several quantities of vaccines as the Government’s top priority is to ensure that the nation is vaccinated against the disease before the end of the year.
Guyana is set to receive 104,000 mNRA vaccines through the COVAX mechanism, along with a donation of 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from Government of China.
The Government here is also set to purchase some 140,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the CARICOM-African Union arrangement.