Government in discussion with major COVID-19 vaccine producers – President Ali

COVID-19 vaccines

…expresses gratitude to Barbados, China, India for donation

The Government of Guyana has been aggressively pursuing its vaccination programme to ensure that the entire country has access to the COVID-19 vaccines, by pursuing the manufacturers of those vaccines to make them readily available.

President Dr Irfaan Ali, in an update to the nation on Saturday, said that his Government is in discussions with AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Moderna, Pfizer, Johnson and Johnson, the United Arab Emirates, India for Covaxin, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the African Union and the COVAX mechanism for the provision of vaccines.
“…as I said before we are sparing no efforts in ensuring that all Guyanese have access to this vaccine. Indeed, your Government is working with every possible stakeholder to ensure that we can vaccinate our population by the end of this year. To this end we have aggressively and proactively pursued many initiatives, many organisations,” he explained.
Thus far, Guyana has received 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from India and 20,000 doses of Sinopharm from the Government of China. Additionally, Barbados donated 3000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine – from what was donated to them by India.
President Ali explained that in relation to the future rollout of vaccines they are waiting on word from the COVAX mechanism.
“In that (COVAX) mechanism we were supposed to receive 108,000 doses of vaccines within the first quarter of this year. It has been a month since our last communication with COVAX and we have received no update from COVAX itself so we are in no position to say where COVAX is in relation to the commitment to Guyana.
“We have also made payments in the COVAX system so we are pursuing with COVAX this 108,000 doses that was promised in the first quarter of this year but as I am saying to you now, one month has elapsed since we last heard from them in relation to an update,” he related.
Ali said that they have been in direct contact with both Moderna and Pfizer for the provision of vaccines but both companies indicated that they can make no commitments until 2022. Additionally, all the paperwork has been submitted to the African Union and they are awaiting an update from the Union.
“We have also collaborated and working with a group out of the UAE. We have placed an order for 200(000) doses of vaccines. That is the Sputnik V vaccines and we have been told that within 2 weeks we will get our first shipment of 50,000 and every 2 weeks following that we will get shipments of 50,000 until we get to the 200(000) doses, we would have ordered from Sputnik.
“We have started the vaccination process and we can’t slow down. So we are moving to every single avenue. I have already made it very clear that we are going to try all that it takes. We are going to commit to ensuring that our population gets the vaccine,” President Ali explained.
The Government also made a request for 120,000 doses of the vaccine from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. He is hoping that within the next two weeks, they can receive positive feedback in relation to the request. Paperwork has also been submitted to Sinopharm for the supply of 200,000 doses of their vaccine and they are in an advanced stage of discussion.
“The Covaxin which is the indigenous vaccine developed by India and is a very affordable vaccine and the news reported Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi as taking this vaccine. We have also put in a request for 400,000 doses of Covaxin and we are waiting communication on that but discussions have already started in relation to the Covaxin. Sputnik V, we have also advanced discussions and negotiations with Russia directly to have 300,000 doses but again production chain management is creating difficulties. We were promised by next Thursday 5000 doses (of Sputnik V) and we are following up on this,” Ali informed.

Gratitude
The President also expressed his gratitude to the Government and people of India, China and Barbados for their donations of vaccines.
“As President, I wish to thank Prime Minister Modi and the people of India for their kind donation of 80,000 vaccines to us. Indeed, this generosity speaks to a Government and a people that are committed to the welfare and wellbeing of humanity. Prime Minister Modi have demonstrated through his own management of COVID, this pandemic, great responsibility not only for India but globally.
“I want to thank the Government and people of China for their donation of 20,000 vaccines to the people of Guyana. On behalf of the people of Guyana, we are surely grateful for this donation. It comes at a time indeed when we are like the rest of the world working on an aggressive plan to vaccinate our population in order to get ahead of this pandemic,” he said.
The President said that it is essential that Guyanese are updated on the Government’s effort to bring the vaccine to them. He is also urging every Guyanese to ensure that they take the vaccine whenever it becomes available to them.
“Let us work together in getting ahead of this pandemic so that we can continue to build our country stronger. So that we can continue to build our country in life and unity. So that we can continue to build this one Guyana and take it to a prosperous future in which all our people can benefit.” (G2)