Senior citizens now leading countrywide COVID-19 vaccination – Dr. Anthony

Senior citizens across Guyana have begun pouring out in numbers to access their COVID-19 vaccines, a direct response to calls by Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony to up the vaccination rate among that population.

The health minister had recently encouraged persons 60 years and older, to become fully immunised so as to decrease hospitalisations and deaths.

Dr. Anthony said Monday, that senior citizens are now leading the way by taking their jabs.

“Persons 60 years and above, for first dose are at about 78.2 per cent who would have received Covid-19 vaccines. For second dose, for persons 60 years and above, we are at 64.9 per cent. So, as you can see, we are getting better. The older population is taking the vaccination very seriously, and once we are able to increase those numbers, these persons are fully protected,” Minister Anthony noted during his covid update.  

The vaccination rate for persons between ages 40 to 59, particularly first dose, is also going well, the health minister relayed. He said 75.6 per cent of persons in this category has taken the first dose, while 54.7 per cent has taken the second shot.

First doses among persons 18 to 39 years are at 71.1 per cent with 41.2 per cent being fully immunised.

“For persons within 12-17 years, we have a lot more work to be done here. We started this campaign for this age group relatively recently so, right now for first dose right now we are only at 38.2 per cent. We need to take that up quite a bit, we want to get that into the seventies like the other age groups. For second dose, we are at 25.9 percent.”

Meanwhile, a total of 386, 350 adults have taken the first dose of a Covid vaccine, while 252,908 of those persons returned for the second dose.

Minister Anthony also noted that the covid cases in Region Four have decreased significantly. This, he said could be attributed to the increase in vaccination.

He said the ministry is monitoring Region Three, as the cases there remain high.

Dr. Anthony made another appeal to persons to come forward and take the covid vaccine and to allow their children to take the jab, which has proven to be lifesaving.