Another tranche of 57,600 AstraZeneca vaccines on Friday arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) – dispatched under the COVAX mechanism to reinforce Guyana’s vaccination drive.
These shots are part of the third consignment sent to Guyana, totalling 120,000 vaccines that have been sent under this arrangement thus far.
COVAX is a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Guyana is included in ten countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are receiving vaccines at no cost through the Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to cover 20 per cent of its population. The mechanism aims to secure 1.3 billion doses for 92 low and middle-income countries by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, 5000 Sputnik V second doses also arrived in the country on Friday – a delivery under the State purchase that will also add to the campaign and be used to vaccinate those persons in waiting.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony insisted during the COVID-19 update that the country’s immunisation campaign will be sustained through these additional resources. Authorities are expecting the Johnson and Johnson jabs, which was purchased though a Caricom-African Union agreement, to be delivered next week.
In the meantime, preparations have already started for the rollout of the Pfizer vaccines for children – expected to arrive by September. He said the country has adequate freezer capacity to sustain an ultracold storage for the jabs but the Ministry is now focused on training of healthcare workers.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony; UK Ambassador Jane Miller, US Ambassador Sarah Ann-Lynch and other representatives at the arrival of the vaccines
“You have to get special freezers to be able to maintain those temperatures. We have procured those freezers. We did so in January of this year and we have a freezer bank that has been set up to store these vaccines…We have since started training our staff on how to store the vaccines and have procured additional equipment to make sure that we can store these vaccines properly. The vaccines would come with special syringes. We have received those syringes yesterday and we will commence training for staff to use these types of syringes and once we complete that, we will be ready to start the rollout of this vaccination programme,” said Dr Anthony.
In the meantime, parents will be given consent forms to indicate whether their children will be taking the vaccine or not.
“We will need permission from the parents. We have started sending out letters to parents and they have to sign those letters and send them back with the child so that we know whether or not we can vaccinate the child. That’s a very important component under this component.”
The health official had warned earlier this week that with the circulation of the deadly Delta variant, children are developing severe forms of the virus – a matter of concern and should be considered when making that decision.
He was quoted as saying on Thursday, “The other thing that one would have to understand is with the new Delta variant, it is causing a lot of infections in the United States. Those infections are occurring more in the unvaccinated population and if children remain unvaccinated, unfortunately they can get infected. When they get infected, what we’re seeing now is not a mild form of the disease in children but we’re also seeing a more severe form.”
Thus far, Guyana’s vaccination programme has been led by donations of 80,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from India, 20,000 Sinopharm doses from China, 3000 through the Barbadian Government; and another 84,800 from the UK Government. There was also a purchase of 100,000 Sinopharm vaccines, 400,000 Sputnik jabs and 150,000 Johnson and Johnson single doses. (G12)
