Unavailability of COVID vaccines at health centers due to storage issues – Minister Anthony
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, said COVID-19 vaccines may not be available at all health centers across the country as there are requirements, such as temperature for proper storage that must be met.
The minister made this statement during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update.
“We don’t have vaccines at every health center, these vaccines require a certain temperature which we must keep them and so forth, but we have more than 100 different sites across the country, and we have been repeatedly identifying these sites so that people would know and go to these sites and get vaccinated, so access to the vaccine is not a problem,” Dr. Anthony said.
The health minister said the ministry has been promoting vaccination for the last six to seven months, through radio and television advertisements and education campaigns, among others.
He said getting more persons to get vaccinated should be a national effort and the responsibility of every Guyanese. He is urging vaccinated persons to encourage others to take their vaccine, as it is necessary to prevent severe symptoms and death.
“This responsibility or this encouragement to get people vaccinated is not just a ministry of health issue, it is every one of us who are living in Guyana should encourage people to get vaccinated because this is what is going to get us closer to herd immunity and this is what is going to help to reduce infection, help to reduce hospitalization, and ultimately help to reduce deaths.”
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases continues to increase with active cases in all 10 administrative regions. The country has recorded 129 cases within the last 24 hours, with 12 being maternal cases.
This has taken the overall number of active cases to 3,992. Of that number, 131 persons are currently hospitalised, with 31 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Minister Anthony said Regions Three, Four, Five, Nine and Ten remain hotspots across the country.