Guyana receives 40,800 Moderna COVID-19 vaccines from South Korea

…slowed 5-11 age group uptake needs to improve – Health Minister

The Government of South Korea has delivered 40,800 doses of Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to Guyana, which will be utilised to continue the Health Ministry’s robust immunisation campaign.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Friday received the shots in an official handing over ceremony at the Central Supplies Unit, Kingston.
“We will use these vaccines as part of our vaccination programme. They are all adult doses. We will be able to use it to give primary first and second doses, but we can also use it for booster doses. Right now, we’re giving boosters to anyone who is 12 years and older. So, these vaccines can be used,” Dr Anthony told media operatives.
Through the COVAX mechanism, the Ministry also received a quantity of other vaccines.
Earlier this month, United States Ambassador, Sarah-Ann Lynch announced that her Government is committed to deliver as many Pfizer vaccines that Guyana needs to vaccinate the population. This pledge included shots for the paediatric, adolescent and adult categories, as well as booster shots.
When asked about this quantity, the Health Minister shared that it depends on the uptake and other factors.
“It depends on how fast people are taking vaccines. We have a projection. We have communicated that projection to the US. Over the next couple of months, we have a schedule of how much vaccines will be coming in different months. Obviously, these numbers would change depending on usage.”
The health official contended that Guyana has made significant progress in its adult vaccination campaign. However, people are still complacent in returning to be boosted.
“While they have gotten first and second doses, they are not coming back for their booster doses. With the Omicron variant that is circulating, if you’re not boosted after every six months or so, then your immunity would wean and you can become more vulnerable to COVID infections. The better thing is to be boosted,” Dr Anthony asserted.
The recently-launched five to 11 vaccine campaign, using specially formulated jabs, has been slowed.
“We’re not seeing the type of uptake that we were expecting.”
Since vaccines have been approved, the US Government has made tangible donations of COVID-19 vaccines to the Health Ministry, which have been used to immunise Guyanese.
Last year, the US Government contributed 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to Guyana, which signalled a turning point in the country’s vaccination campaign. The jabs were then introduced to children aged 12 and above.
At that time 56,000 students enrolled in secondary schools across Guyana and anyone in the age category was eligible for the vaccine. Some from the primary level, TVET, Cyril Potter College of Education and University of Guyana were included in the radar.
With the US FDA recently granting approval for use of vaccines for children between six months and four years of age, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony had positioned that Government would want to source the jabs. However, there are challenges but Government has initiated a process through its channels to bring the shots here. Generally, it would take some months to access the jabs.