Collaboration with Amerindian leaders could hike COVID-19 vaccine uptake

…Health Minister …127 new infections surface

Changing the dynamics of hinterland villages to reflect increased protection against COVID-19 can be achieved through collaboration with Toshaos from the various Amerindian villages.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has committed to working with Indigenous villages to get more persons vaccinated against COVID-19.
Village leaders were engaged during the National Toshaos Conference this week on the importance of getting their people immunised. To this end, the Health Minister has signalled support to reach these communities through collaborative efforts.
“We had a very good interaction with the Toshaos and I’m convinced that they understand the importance of getting vaccinated. I’m extremely hopeful that they would take this important message back to their communities and work more closely with the Ministry of Health’s staff in the various regions. They can reach out to us any time. We’re willing to provide the technical staff to go into the communities to do vaccination, but it has to be a collaborative effort between us and the community. If we work in that way, we’ll see higher uptake in many of these villages,” he underscored during the COVID-19 update.
The five to 11 age group vaccination campaign, the Health Minister outlined, is an area where more effort is needed. Additionally, those persons who took their primary doses need to return for their boosters.
He has positioned that from a technical standpoint, there were not any challenges in administering the vaccines. The Health Ministry would deploy a team of medical personnel to remote areas to deliver vaccines. However, there are challenges on the community’s end.
“What we have on the community side sometimes is that there is a lot of hesitancy. That’s because of misinformation that is circulating in the community so people have various apprehensions. We have a project that we have been working on to figure out what these apprehensions are, to figure what are the false information that is circulating, and to counter that with the right information,” Dr Anthony said.
He also called out persons of influence in the community that have been dissuading people from getting vaccinated, labelling it highly irresponsible behaviour.
“That’s highly irresponsible, because, in many instances, if these persons get sick, they can end up with a more severe form of the infection. Instead of dissuading people, these persons should become more acquainted with what the science is saying and then use their influence for a good purpose…The majority of religious leaders across the country have endorsed this,” said the Health Minister.

New positives
Total recorded cases of COVID-19 in Guyana have reached 68,627 after another 127 new cases were reported on Thursday.
There are still 1264 confirmed deaths, with five persons in the Intensive Care Unit
(ICU). From the latest dashboard, 34 persons are in institutional isolation, 877 in home isolation, and three in institutional quarantine.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or need any additional information, they are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline on 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy.