Canada donates 55,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine for Guyana

Another tranche of 55,000 AstraZeneca vaccines on Friday arrived in Guyana, adding more resources to continue the vaccination campaign in the wake of COVID-19.

This shipment of vaccines is a donation from the Government of Canada through the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Revolving Funds. Advisor to the Health Minister, Dr Leslie Ramsammy was joined by Political Counsellor at the High Commission of Canada, Caroline Mireault and Officer-in-Charge at PAHO/WHO, Daniel Albert.
The consignment covers 55,000 AstraZeneca vaccines, which Dr Ramsammy said will prove essential in the coming weeks to offer both vaccination and booster doses. This adds to some 1.2 million doses that has been made available in the local vaccination leg.
“We were implementing a policy of using the same vaccine for first and second doses. Therefore, this AstraZeneca donation from the Government of Canada is going to help us to resolve that issue for those persons who might’ve received a first dose AstraZeneca to complete their second dose,” the advisor determined.
He said due to contributions from stakeholders and efforts on Government’s end, Guyana stands among the developing countries that have vaccines to immunise the population in its entirety. Currently, over 410,000 first doses for adults along with 30,000 doses for the adolescent cohort have been administered.
“When you look at the whole scenario in Guyana, of the 1.15 million doses, we are going to move to 1.2 million doses that are available in our country. More than 800,000 doses of vaccines have been administered around the country.”
Meanwhile, the Canadian representative positioned, “Guyana is one the first countries in the region to receive this donation. We know that Guyana has done a lot in vaccinating people and getting vaccines into the country for the population so we commend the Government for that.”
Earlier this year Canada had announced a contribution of C$50 million to the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO). Canada’s contribution includes targeted support of at least $6 million to the Caribbean, given the disproportionate impacts of the pandemic on small island developing states. The funding is also supporting national efforts to introduce COVID-19 vaccines and reaching populations living in situations of vulnerability, particularly women and migrants.
In Guyana, since the start of the pandemic, through PAHO, Canada has procured PPE, provided thousands of testing kits and equipment, supported training to strengthen diagnostic testing and sample taking, supported mental health psychosocial support campaigns and risk communication and also provided essential cleaning and sanitation supplies.
High Commissioner of Canadian, Mark Berman has also applauded the efforts of the Guyana Government to ensure that vaccines are available for everyone in the country and stated that Canada is committed to continuing to support Guyana’s efforts.
“The Government of Guyana has done tremendous work to ensure the availability and access of vaccines to the people in need. But we also recognise that the migrant populations have also put an additional weight on the healthcare system. As such, Canada is proud to be able to provide this support to the Ministry of Health in an effort to ensure the entire population could be served,” he underscored.
There were donations of 3000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot from Barbados, 20,000 Sinopharm doses from China, 84,000 AstraZeneca doses from the United Kingdom and another 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India. The country also utilised some 146,250 Pfizer-BioNTech jabs to immunise the adolescent population and pregnant women, after a donation was sent from the United States Government.
Government had procured 400,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines from Dubai and another 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
Back in May, Guyana also made a down-payment of approximately US$7.5 million to the African Union for 150,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson jab. (G12)