COVID-19 vaccine: Persons may soon have to be fully vaccinated to access public service

…as Task Force considers changing definition of ‘vaccinated’

The National COVID-19 Task Force Secretariat is examining the requirement of having a person’s vaccinated status be reflected as having acquired both doses of a coronavirus vaccine.
In Guyana, for a person to be considered vaccinated, they have to be immunised with at least one dose of an accepted vaccine, but officials have been considering whether this should be changed to both doses.
Speaking during the COVID-19 update, Health Minister
Dr Frank Anthony said this move has already been adopted in other countries.
“We are considering because our definition of ‘vaccinated’ was that if you got at least one dose of the vaccine. The Task Force is currently examining whether or not to implement fully vaccinated, or what measures to take. We’ll see when those orders come out whether those changes have been made,” he noted.
New Center for Disease Control (CDC) requirements, effective on November 8, state that all airline passengers travelling to the United States must show proof of being fully vaccinated against COVID-19, in addition to existing requirement of a negative COVID-19 test taken within three days prior to flight.
As it relates to the country’s travel guidelines, he outlined, “If we change our definition in the Order, moving from vaccinated being at least one to vaccinated being both doses, that would be a requirement for everybody. But at this point in time, no decision has been made by the Task Force.”
In Guyana, 380,257 persons, or 74.1 per cent of the adult population, have taken their first COVID-19 vaccine dose. Some 241,211 persons, or 47 per cent of the abovenamed demographic, have returned for their second shot and are completely immunised.
Meanwhile, 27,193 persons, or 37.3 per cent of children, have been immunised with a first dose.
The Minister pointed out that there is a stark difference of about 139,000 persons between the first and second dose uptake.
“When you look at how (many) persons got their first dose and how (many) got their second dose, there is a difference of 139,000 people. There is still a lot of people who need to come back to get their second dose vaccine,” he underscored.
In terms of second dose coverage, the breakdown shows 40.4 percent for Region One, 39.2 percent for Region Two, 44.7 per cent for Region Three, 53.7 per cent for Region Four, 47.5 per cent for Region Five, 47.2 per cent for Region Six, 42.4 per cent for Region Seven, 32 per cent for Region Eight, 51.2 per cent for Region Nine and 17.7 per cent for Region 10.

AstraZeneca expiration date nears
“Most countries consider someone to be fully vaccinated with a two-dose regimen 14 days after the last dose. Even after you got your second dose, you got to wait 14 days before you can be considered fully vaccinated. Similarly, with the J &J vaccine, after you got vaccinated, then you wait 14 days,” Dr Anthony clarified.
As the deadline nears for the expiry of AstraZeneca vaccines, the public is urged to get vaccinated. By the ending of November, thousands of jabs will have to be discarded. The Health Minister said a significant amount of second doses need to be administered to outstanding persons.
“When I referred to November, I’m talking about the end of November, so we still have a few more days to ensure that people come and get their second dose. The challenge that we have is that you have a number of persons who got first dose AstraZeneca and we currently have the second dose available to them. If they don’t come by the end of November, these vaccines expire, then we don’t have any in stock. We would have to wait until we get another shipment or purchase another shipment. That would be a pity,” he said. (G12)