UK donates 84,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine

Guyana’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign has been boosted with the arrival of 84,800 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from the United Kingdom (UK).

The 84,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine being offloaded from the aeroplane

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony MP, along with UK High Commissioner, Her Excellency Jane Miller received the vaccines when they arrived, on Monday, at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA).

Dr. Anthony said the Government is grateful for the donation. 

“This of course, would help us to further our vaccination programme and as you rightly said, we have been aggressively trying to get vaccines, rolling out this programme.

“So, this would certainly complement what we’re doing…. We are extremely grateful for this donation,” he said.

The 84,800 doses of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Dr. Anthony highlighted that it was through support from the British Government and other international partners, Guyana was able to obtain vaccines. He said the aim is to have at least 85 per cent of the county’s adult population vaccinated against the deadly disease.

“With the emergence of the delta variant around the world countries are having challenges, even countries that are well resourced are seeing increasing cases among the unvaccinated and those increases cases can lead to more hospitalisation and more deaths.

“We can prevent that…So, in order to prepare to prevent sudden surges, we have adequate supply of vaccines and with this amount of vaccines that we have just received from the UK, it has complemented what we already have so there’s no excuse not to get a vaccine.”

From left: U K Deputy High Commissioner, His Excellency Ray Davidson; Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, MP; UK High Commissioner, Her Excellency Jane Miller; UK Deputy High Commissioner’s wife, Her Excellency Shivaun Davidson and Ministry of Health Project Analyst Coordinator, Ms. Shekinah Stuart

Meanwhile the High Commissioner, said United Kingdom is proud to make the donation to the people of Guyana.

“It is a huge pleasure that we donate 84,800 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines. We know the COVID vaccine saves lives and the UK is very proud to be making this donation here today,” she said.

High Commissioner Miller also said the UK has been working aggressively on managing the pandemic there. Some £1.3 million has already been donated across the globe to mitigate the impact of the virus worldwide, with another £585 million going towards the COVAX initiative for scaling up global vaccination.

The 84,800 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines Guyana received is part of the first batch of the 100 million doses the UK pledged to donate to get the poorest parts of the world vaccinated as a matter of urgency. UK Deputy High Commissioner, His Excellency Ray Davidson, his wife, Her Excellency Shivaun Davidson and Ministry of Health Project Analyst Coordinator Ms. Shekinah Stuart also attended the exercise.

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