Large turnout at adolescents’ COVID-19 vaccination drive

The Government’s adolescents’ COVID-19 vaccination campaign continued on Wednesday at Queen’s College, with yet another large turnout of children between 12 to 17 years old.  

The vaccination drive is a collaboration between the Ministries of Health and Education, to prepare children for the return to face-to-face learning when schools reopen on September 6.  

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony and U.S Ambassador to Guyana, Sarah-Ann Lynch visited the vaccination site.

Minister Anthony said he was pleased with the response to the vaccine.

“We’ve had a good turnout here at QC. A lot of students came out, a lot of parents and of course they’re also lots of teachers and we’re very happy because with the teachers they’re getting one of the adult vaccines depending on their choice”, Minister Anthony stated.

Multiple vaccination stations were in place at the school to facilitate more persons.

“We have as you can see here, twelve stations so we can accommodate twelve children at the same time. We have nurses on site and they’re working very feverishly, so I think today we’ll have a very good number here with the amount of people being vaccinated”, Minister Anthony said.  

Headteacher of the school, Candaice Cave-Stephens said the vaccination exercise has been a success.

“Our event this morning is going excellent. We started our vaccination around seven o’clock. Around eight-thirty, we completed two hundred. At this time of the day, it’s now eleven o’clock, we’re well over four hundred vaccinations and we still have a few hundred in there processing”,she noted.

Meanwhile, students who received their vaccines expressed their eagerness to take the jabs. They said it was a step in the right direction to keep them safe.

Nila Rahaman encouraged her peers who have concerns about the vaccine to do their own research to gather information about it.

“I feel totally fine because you know, I did my own research beforehand. I found out about the vaccine, the ingredients in it and whatever and like I wasn’t really scared taking it… “I’d like to encourage them to take it so you know, we could get back into school and our normal routines. If you’re concerned you should do your own research, well honestly if you find out about it, it’s not really that scary”, she told DPI.

Another student, Deeran Persaud shared his feelings after taking the vaccine. He encouraged others to do the same.

“I feel pretty good. It feels nice to be finally vaccinated…I think you should definitely consider taking the vaccine. Getting vaccinated is a very good thing and it helps protect you from the virus”, he noted.

 Ashish Rajram said vaccination is a step in controlling the disease. “I encourage all the young people or even old people to get the vaccine as it will help combat COVID-19 more effectively”, he said.

Maya Etwaru related, “I feel great, I feel like I’m finally having some sort of protection against the Corona Virus.”

The vaccination programme for adolescents is expected to continue across the country with inoculation drives at various locations.