25,000 doses of Sputnik-V vaccine to arrive in Guyana today

A consignment of 25,000 doses of Sputnik-V vaccine, out of the 200,000 purchased by the Government, is expected to arrive in Guyana today. The jabs, manufactured by Russia, will arrive at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) at Timehri, EBD.
In total, Government has spent some US$4 million to acquire the total tranche, at a cost of US$20 per dose.
The agreement was first announced by President Dr Irfaan Ali one week ago. He has stated that the Government cannot put a price tag on the health of the citizenry.
“It’s very expensive, but it is an expense that we can’t spare. The health of the population is very critical. This will call for some adjustments in the budget and so on, but, as I said, we are not sparing any expenses on this. We are working on making the resources available to ensure every single Guyanese is vaccinated,” the Guyanese Leader was quoted as saying.
Further, President Ali has told reporters that Government has already established a supply chain and storage facility in anticipation of the arrival of these vaccines next week.
In fact, Government has also engaged the Private Sector to add to its current storage capacity.
The vaccination campaign commenced with frontline health workers and was thereafter extended to persons 60 years and over, before becoming available to persons 40 years and over. More than 36,000 persons in Guyana have to date been vaccinated.
President Ali has posited that authorities are working aggressively to secure more COVID-19 jabs, so that the country can achieve herd immunity.
This week, the COVAX facility also delivered 24,000 AstraZeneca vaccines to Guyana – the first tranche until 100,800 doses are consigned to support the local vaccination programme.
The doses, manufactured by SK Bioscience of South Korea, arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport after being dispatched by PAHO’s Revolving Fund – responsible for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for the countries of the Americas.
It is the first phase of deliveries for Guyana, with more vaccines expected to arrive successively during 2021. According to the first round of allocations, Guyana is expected to continue receiving doses through May until it reaches 100,800, the amount specified by the global mechanism.
In this first round of vaccine allocation, all COVAX participating countries will receive doses to vaccinate between 2.2 and 2.6 per cent of their population. The only exceptions are Small Island Developing States, which will receive an allocation of vaccines to cover between 16 and 20 per cent of their populations, due to the high logistical cost of delivering small quantities of vaccines.
Thus far, Guyana’s vaccination programme has been led by 80,000 vaccines from India, 20,000 Sinopharm doses from China, and 3000 through the Barbadian Government. To date, over 31,000 persons have received their first dose.