Persons ages 40 and above, senior citizens, can access Covid vaccines -Minister Anthony

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says while the COVID-19 vaccination campaign has expanded to include people from 40-years-old, those 60 years and older and individuals with comorbidities can still access the vaccines.

He made this disclosure during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update.

“Well, you know we had a specific time period for persons 60 years and over and for frontline health care workers. We wanted to give preference for these two groups. We have not yet exhausted the two groups, there are still persons from that age group or some of the health workers who have not been forward as yet.

I want people to pay close attention to them because I’ve received reports that people are coming to the centre, and if you were said 60 or you’re 80, I’ve had a few reports where they are being turned back. The thing is, if you are 40 years and above, so whether you’re 60,70 80,90 whatever it is, once you are above 40, then it’s okay for you to come and get your vaccine.”  

Minister Anthony said the public must understand that senior citizens must be accommodated and given the vaccine.

Meanwhile Dr. Anthony said the vaccination exercise is moving apace. To date, 32,714 persons have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in Guyana.

“We’ve had a lot of people coming forward to get their vaccines. It has gone very well in every region as well. We have teams that are operating and people are coming to get their vaccine.

I think our constant challenge has been that people of different ages are coming, and we’re trying to get people to understand that we wanted first of all, to do the 60 and above age group, and as we get more vaccines, we would lower that.” 

Guyana began it COVID-19 immunisation campaign mid-February after receiving a gift of 3000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the Government of Barbados. This was followed up by a donation of 20,000 Sinopharm vaccines from the People’s Republic of China and 80,000 from the Indian Government.

On Sunday, Guyana received 24,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX mechanism.