Guyana has enough vaccines to achieve herd immunity – Health Minister

Guyana has in stock an adequate number of Covid-19 vaccines to achieve herd immunity, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony has said.

With the Delta variant of the Coronavirus circulating, Guyana aims to fully immunise at least 90 per cent of its population to achieve herd immunity.

During his daily Covid-19 update on Friday, Dr. Anthony said thereare adequate amounts of Astra Zeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson vaccines to significantly lessen the spread of the deadly virus here.  

“With AstraZeneca we have given most of the first doses and we have about 55, 000 or so persons who need to get their second dose, so we need to get those second doses. In terms of Sinopharm, we have adequate vaccines for both first and second doses, and Sputnik V, we have first and second doses currently available, J&J, as you know it’s one dose so we have those available as well,” Dr. Anthony said.

He said the country also has enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine which is being administered to children between the ages of 12 and 18, along with pregnant and breast-feeding women.

Dr. Anthony said the country’s vaccination rate also continues to grow.  Currently 376,436 persons or 73.4 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine while 236,238 persons or 46.1% of the adult population are fully immunised.

In Region Four, the most populated Region in Guyana, 82 per cent of the population received a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr. Anthony said however, that this still needs to increase.

 “As you would see the higher the immunisation rate goes up, you will see a fall-off in terms of the hospitalisation and the deaths, and as we increase these numbers of persons being vaccinated in Region Four, you are going to see the cases come down.”

He still many regions continue to lag behind in their vaccination rate, a situation Dr. Anthony reiterated, must be quickly addressed.

In Region One 79.5 per cent of the population has had a first dose of the vaccine, Region Twp, 59.6 per cent, Region Three, 70.1 per cent, Region Five, 72.4 per cent, Region Six 73.8 per cent Region Seven, 72.4 per cent, Region Eight, 45.4 per cent, Region Nine, 73.6 per cent and Region 10 33.1 per cent

“As you can see in Region 10, we are really lagging behind because they have only completed about 33.1 percent of the region’s population. If we hope to get to herd immunity in that region, then we have to increase this to at least 90 %. Again, Region Eight is also lagging behind they are at 45.4 per cent and again if we want to be at herd immunity its about 90 percent, Region Two is also lagging behind and they are 59.6 per cent and again if we are looking at getting herd immunity against Delta its about 90 per cent of the population, so, we have a far way to go in terms of vaccinating especially in these three regions,” Dr Anthony noted.

The Ministry is also expecting more doses of Sputnik V, AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines in the coming weeks.