COVID-19 vaccine: Equipment to digitise booklet to arrive by first quarter – Health Minister

Moving apace with its decision to digitise COVID-19 immunisation cards, the Health Ministry is expecting the specialized equipment to arrive within the first quarter of 2022.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony shared during Thursday’s COVID briefing that this undertaking is in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). A special team is still working to input the current data into a digital format, and once the equipment arrives, new cards would be minted.
“We have got most of the physical registers, and we are now putting that in a digital format. A lot of the work has already been completed. Since last year, we have been working with UNDP to buy some of the equipment that is necessary, specialised printers and so forth. We expect that we will get delivery of those special equipment to print the new cards within the first quarter of this year,” Dr Anthony updated.
The new cards are expected to provide ease of access when doing business or gaining entry to places where vaccination is required. Initially, the Ministry had engaged the Government of India on an agreement that would see Guyana having access to the COVID-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) software, which would allow the production of electronic vaccination cards.
CoWIN is a vaccination tracking software that was developed by India, and is currently being used in over 70 countries around the world, including those from Central Asia, Africa, and Latin America. It has been reported that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had directed officials to create an open-source version of the platform and give it free of cost to any country that wants it.
Current vaccination statistics show that 416,353 first doses were administered to adults. This is 81.2 per cent of this cohort, while 302,704 persons, or 59 per cent, are completely vaccinated. For the 12-to-17 age group, 22,259 or 30.5 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Speaking on the availability of Sputnik V shots, the Minister said there is no need to procure at this point in time.
“We have adequate supplies at this point in time. There is no need for us to go and buy additional doses of Sputnik V. We have enough in the system for those who would want to get vaccinated with Sputnik V,” Dr Anthony has said.
For those persons who have not yet been vaccinated, the Minister warned that they stand a greater chance of being hospitalised should they contract the deadly virus.
“What we have seen is that persons who are unvaccinated, if they have comorbidities, unfortunately, they’re the ones who would end up in the hospital. We’re getting far less hospitalisation now, but if you’re unvaccinated and you have comorbidities, then you would be at a much higher risk of getting hospitalised if you get COVID,” he shared. (G12)