COVID-19 booster uptake “very poor” – Health Minister

…persons may soon have to get boosters to be considered “fully vaccinated”

Speaking in Thursday’s coronavirus briefing, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said just over 36,000 persons who were fully immunised from COVID-19 have returned to get their booster shots administered, and this is an uptake which can be considered very poor for the country.

Dr Anthony highlighted that 50 per cent of the 36,866 booster shots administered were recorded in Region Four.
“…I think very poorly, because, so far, there are approximately 36,866 persons who would have received a booster dose. In Region Four, approximately 18,829 would have received a booster dose,” he lamented.
When the statistics are dissected further, 6,295 persons received a booster dose in Region Six; 5,354 in Region Three; 1074 in Region Nine; 2,191 in Region Five; 1,552 in Region Two; 664 in Region One; 221 in Region Eight; 338 in Region Seven; and 328 in Region 10.
“In the interior regions, Region Nine is doing fairly well, but this is also relatively low, because these numbers need to go up quite a lot. We really need people to come out and get their booster doses,” Dr Anthony has said.
The Health Ministry continues to operate vaccination sites in key areas, enabling accessibility to the vaccines. Some 100 sites have been facilitating vaccination since the pandemic started.
Dr Anthony has detailed, “In every region, we do have them. What we are trying to do now on the coastland is to have fixed vaccination sites that are operational the whole day, so that people would know where they’re located and would go there, once they need a vaccine.
“In Region Four, we have a number of these sites on the East Coast and (in) Georgetown. Similar things are happening in other regions,” the Health Minister disclosed.
However, in the interior regions, mobile teams are more effective in reaching a wider cross-section of the population.
Persons have been encouraged to take the booster dose, since protection against the disease would wane after months of complete immunisation. This month, some 18,000 new infections were reported, with the rise of the Omicron variant. A percentage of those were pregnant women.
“We have been appealing to women to take the vaccines. We have seen a lot of them not wanting to take the vaccines because of misinformation, but we have worked with the obstetricians to make sure that people understand the importance of getting vaccinated,” Dr Anthony disclosed.
Government started administering booster shots after studies around the world showed that the efficacy of the vaccines wanes after six months of receiving both doses.

Fully vaccinated
Meanwhile, with the increased transmission of the Omicron variant, resulting in spiralling positive cases, hospitalisations and deaths across the world, some countries have moved to consider persons with three doses of a COVID-19 vaccine to be fully vaccinated.
Dr Anthony has said Guyana would soon have to move in that direction, as the country continues to record an increase in coronavirus infections.
The Health Minister continues to urge persons to get both doses of their vaccine, along with a booster shot at five months after taking the second jab.
“So, the world is moving from thinking about two doses as being fully vaccinated to now thinking about full vaccination as having three doses, so we have to move in that direction as well,” the Health Minister has further contended.
The World Health Organization has thus postulated: “The vast majority of current infections and COVID-19 cases are observed in unvaccinated people. If breakthroughs occur in vaccinated persons, in most cases events are less severe than those in unvaccinated persons.
However, emerging data consistently show a decline in vaccine effectiveness against SARS-CoV2 infection and COVID-19 with time since vaccination, and more significant decline in older adults.”
In the cohort of the adult population, 422,165 persons, or 82.3 per cent, have taken a first dose. Some 60.6 per cent have returned for their second dose. In the 12-to-17 cohort, 22,799 persons, or 31.3 per cent of that cohort, are fully inoculated. (G12)