…3 more deaths, 31 new COVID cases recorded
Guyana received 10,000 second doses of Sputnik V vaccines on Monday morning.
In his COVID-19 update on Monday, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said that the Ministry will continue the administration of the second doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine today. 
According to Dr Anthony, the administration of the vaccines will continue for those who received their first doses in April and will be extended to those persons who received theirs in May.
He said that the period to receive the second dose of the Russian-made vaccine is between four to 12 weeks.
Dr Anthony added that the Ministry is aware that a lot of persons already took their first dose and many are now eligible for their second dose.
“We have been following that protocol so those persons, as of last week, as you would recall we have started giving the second dose to those persons who got their first dose in April. We’ll continue that process from tomorrow anybody remaining from April will be able to access their second dose,” the Health Minister said.
He has since called for persons to visit a vaccination site to receive their second jabs, adding that the Ministry is also administering the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine, and Sinopharm.
Guyana had experienced a delay in receiving the shipment of the second component after there was a global shortage due to the spike in the Delta variant.
Slowdown
Additionally, Dr Anthony revealed that authorities are seeing a “slowdown” of persons coming out to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Generally, we have to get more people coming out…we’ve seen a slowdown, so to speak, of persons coming out to get the vaccine,” he stated during Monday’s update on the situation.
To date, 246,716 persons have received a first dose of the vaccine, representing 50.7 per cent of adult population while 130,429 persons are fully inoculated, representing 26.8 per cent.
Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) are lagging behind with regards to the vaccination uptake, when compared to other regions.
The Health Minister noted that efforts are being made to encourage vaccination not only in those regions, but countrywide.
He reminded that the current COVID-19 restrictions cannot be removed unless the country achieves herd immunity.
“If we want to remove some of the restrictions that we currently have, then the only way we’ll be able to do that is if we’re able to achieve herd immunity and to do that, people will have to get the vaccines,” Dr Anthony posited.
The Health Minister had previously explained that for Guyana to achieve herd immunity, between 80 per cent to 85 per cent of the population needs to be fully vaccinated.
The country had experienced and continues to experience a delay in receiving the shipment of the second component after there was a global shortage due to the spike in the Delta variant. The Sputnik V vaccine has proven most effective against this variant.
In addition to these three vaccines, the country is expected to get a shipment of Johnson and Johnson vaccines next month. The Guyana Government had made a down payment for the acquisition of 150,000 single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccines under a partnership agreement between the African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Deaths, new cases
Also on Monday, the Ministry reported that three more persons who were infected with the novel coronavirus have died, taking the country’s death toll to 530.
The latest fatalities are a 37-year-old woman from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a 70-year-old woman from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), and a 73-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
Meanwhile, the country has recorded 31 new COVID cases, taking the total positives recorded since March 2020 to 22,181. Of this amount there has been 20,665 recoveries.
There are nine persons in the Intensive Care Unit; 70 in institutional isolation and 907 in home isolation.
There were 31 new cases recorded on Monday from 559 tests.
The new cases are two in Region Three; 15 in Region Four; one in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); nine in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and four in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising. The measures also include a 22:30h (10:30 pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew that is in effect until July 31, 2021.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19 or needs any additional information, contact the COVID-19 Hotline 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy.
