100,000 Pfizer vaccines from COVAX to arrive next week – Health Minister

…3 more deaths, 189 cases in 1 day

In the coming week, Guyana will be in receipt of another shipment of COVID-19 vaccines through the COVAX mechanism – 100,000 Pfizer jabs.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony announced on Thursday that the shots would arrive on October 4.
“It is the first time we will be receiving Pfizer vaccines from COVAX. Before, we got AstraZeneca, so it’s the first time we’re getting 100,000 Pfizer vaccines from COVAX,” he noted.
The country has already been utilising the Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to immunise the adolescent population with a donation of 146,250 doses from the United States Government. Overall, more than 24,000 children between the ages of 12 and 17 have received a first dose of the vaccine since this leg of the vaccination campaign commenced.
The double-dose vaccine, one of two which have been approved for children, is proven to be 95 per cent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 in people who receive two doses.
COVAX is a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI); Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance; the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The mechanism aims to secure 1.3 billion doses for 92 low- and middle-income countries by the end of the year. Guyana has been included among 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are receiving vaccines at no cost through the Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Thus far, 120,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have been sent to immunise Guyanese.

Vaccine uptake
Second-dose uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines has increased dramatically with the availability of Sputnik V second component and now, over 37 per cent of adults have been completely immunised.
On Wednesday, 1029 first doses for adults and another 530 first doses for children were administered. In terms of the administration of second doses for adults, 6655 persons took the shots when compared to 1762 for children.
Dr Anthony outlined during the coronavirus update that this was a new daily record for the country, vaccinating 9946 persons in one day.
Some 358,237 persons have been administered with a first-dose COVID-19 vaccine, amounting to 69.8 per cent of adults. Second doses are at 192,672 persons or 37.6 per cent.

New cases and deaths
As of Thursday, three more unvaccinated persons died from the coronavirus, taking the death toll to 786.
Those who died were a 74-year-old woman from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and a 68-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) – who both died on September 29. On September 26, a 69-year-old man from Region One (Barima-Waini) also succumbed.
One hundred and eighty-nine new cases were detected within the course of one day – raising the total confirmed positives to 31,827.
There are 32 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 140 in institutional isolation, 3839 in home isolation and 786 in institutional quarantine. Throughout the pandemic, 317,348 individuals were tested – of which 15,117 males and 16,710 females were positive.
A region-by-region breakdown of new cases shows three persons testing positive in Region One, 15 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); 30 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 104 in Region Four; 10 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); five in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); nine in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); one in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); five in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and seven in Region 10.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or need any additional information, contact the COVID-19 Hotline on 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy.
All Guyanese are reminded to observe the protocols of the COVID-19 emergency measures which emphasise: correct and consistent use of a face mask when leaving your home; maintaining the six feet of physical distance from others; and good hand hygiene. (G12)