Guyana to receive 80,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from India

– shipment to arrive soon

– Minister Anthony

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says Guyana will soon receive 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from the Government of India. The Minister made this disclosure during Friday’s COVID-19 update.

This quota, he said, is part of a larger consignment India is donating to the Caribbean.

“The Government of India has been generous enough to give vaccines to the Caribbean. In general, I think they’ve allocated about 500,000 doses to the Caribbean, and from that allocation Guyana is going to get 80,000 doses,” Dr. Anthony said.

While the logistics are being worked out, the Minister said those vaccines are expected some time next week.

Meanwhile, with regard to Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Hon. Dr. Keith Rowley’s statement that the Region is being squeezed out of access to COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Anthony acknowledged that there is a challenge. However, he said COVAX has given assurances that Caribbean countries would soon receive their consignment.

“I think the whole Region as Dr. Rowley would have pointed out, are having challenges with accessing vaccines. … With COVAX, we have not seen a rapid deployment of vaccines yet, we are hoping to see vaccines coming to the region by next week.” 

Through COVAX, countries listed in the category of AMC [low and middle-income economies] would receive vaccines free of cost. Guyana is set to receive 104,000 doses.

Earlier this month, the Government received a donation of 3,000 vaccines from the Government of Barbados. The vaccines were shared between the CARICOM Secretariat, which received 200 doses for 100 people, and the remaining 2,800 for 1,400 frontline health workers. Guyana will also benefit from another 149,000 doses of vaccines through a purchase agreement under the CARICOM-African Union agreement and it is also expecting a donation of 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from the Chinese Government.