Take the vaccine when you get the chance – Health Minister urges

…as immunisation exercise rollout now countrywide

Medical teams have been deployed to start a countrywide rollout of the coronavirus vaccines, starting with healthcare workers. Persons are advised to take their shots when given the chance.
This urge came from Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony as he explained during the COVID-19 update on Tuesday that while the vaccine is voluntary, it is important to take it when the resources are available. In contrast, many persons in other countries want to be vaccinated but are challenged by limited resources.

“The vaccine is purely voluntary and you take it if you want to take it. We would encourage you to get it because we know that it works and it’s protective. Around the world, people are really trying to get access to vaccines so we’re very privileged to get access and even here in Guyana, a lot of people have been calling and want to get the vaccine…If you get a chance to get your vaccine, take it,” he advised.
The Minister indicated it is the responsibility of Government to offer it to frontline workers first, but it is ultimately their choice. Nevertheless, he added that staffers in the medical field are aware of the risks and level of exposure, making it wiser to take the vaccines.
“The President has said that we’re not making this mandatory but I’m very sure that health workers, nurses, doctors and other people in the health sector understand that they’re more at risk because of their interaction, it would be wiser to take the vaccine.”
Reflecting on the rollout this week, Dr Anthony informed that it is sailing smoothly. It is expected that more persons will turn out to get the vaccines, given heightened awareness and information about the shots.
The Ministry was able to start vaccinating people after receiving 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China and 80,000 AstraZeneca doses from India. The 3000 shots previously donated by the Barbadian Government was used over the weeks to vaccinate healthcare workers. But the large tranche recently received will widen the subset of people to benefit, extending to the Joint Services, the elderly and persons with comorbidities.
“I think it has been going well. We started in all the regions yesterday. We have teams that are deployed in different parts of the country and the response has been good. As we get those numbers and we compile them, I’ll give the numbers on how many persons have been vaccinated. But so far, yesterday was a good day and we expect that as we go through this immunisation programme, that more people will be coming out, more people will be knowing where the sites are and so forth.”
On Monday, the Minister cautioned that if persons are found jumping the queue to get vaccinated, strict penalties will be brought against them. This is since the high-risk groups are being prioritised.