Renovations started on vaccination centres

−refrigerator, generators procured
-in preparation for Covid vaccine roll out

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says infrastructural work has begun on several vaccination centres in preparation for the rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine. A vaccine is expected to become available to Guyana soon.

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony

The renovations follow closely on the heels of the convening of a National COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

“In terms of our readiness, we have looked at our existing vaccination centres to upgrade them, so, last year’s budget we have been able to pass monies to do that. We have started to expand some of the existing vaccination centres,” Dr. Anthony said, during Thursday’s COVID-19 update.

In addition to expanding the physical space, the Ministry has also ordered new refrigerators for the storage of the vaccines, and generators, which are already on the way.

Minister Anthony said the next step is for more training of experienced health workers in the area of immunization.

“These people have experience with rolling out vaccines so, we’re taking staff that would have worked with vaccinations programme before, both at the national level and at a regional level. We are also training staff specifically to deal with the types of vaccines as each one of the vaccines would have different types of requirements.”

Meanwhile, Minister Anthony said one of the ongoing challenges curbing Covid is that some people still believe the disease to be an elaborate prank, and continue to put themselves and others at risk.

“Some people think it’s a hoax. Well, it’s not a hoax because as you know, there are billions of people around the globe that have been infected. More than a million and a half people would have died from disease so it’s a very serious thing. It’s something that we have to really pay attention to. It’s not a hoax.”

Guyana will access the COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX mechanism, which has been set up by the World Health Organization to ensure equal access to vaccines by all countries.

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