Increased vaccination, boosters will influence lifting of other measures – Dr Anthony

…Ministry working to lower partially vaccinated numbers

A recent move by Government to lift the national curfew could initiate other actions to slowly abolish other mandatory guidelines currently in place, but this will come at the cost of higher vaccination and booster uptake.

Speaking during Monday’s COVID update, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony shared this position as he cautioned the public to continue following the primary measures to keep the population safe. The national curfew was lifted last week – almost two years after it was instituted.
“As we increase the amount of vaccination, getting people boosted, then we probably would be able to consider removing some of the other public health measures but we are not there as yet…Lifting curfew does not mean that the other public health measures are lifted. You have to do mask wearing. You still have to keep social distancing. You have to still sanitise. These are important measures that are going to reduce the spread…Not because we have lifted the curfew they can return to this level of normalcy. You still have to take the precautions,” said the Minister.
In Guyana, first dose vaccination among adults account for 428,716 or 83.6 per cent while second doses are only at 321,940 or 62.8 per cent.
In the 12 to 17 age group, 33,129 first doses or 45.4 per cent coverage has been recorded. Of this number, 23,705 or 32.5 per cent have returned for their second dose.
Thousands of persons have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and have not returned to obtain their second jab, leaving them partially vaccinated. He said efforts will be made to bridge the gap between the partially vaccinated and completely vaccinated statistics.
“There is a difference between first and second dose and that’s one of the areas that we have to work on because people would remain partially vaccinated if they only got one dose. We want to encourage persons who received just one dose to make sure that they get the second dose.”
On the low uptake currently seen among the adolescent population, he indicated, “There is a lot of room for improvement here because there is a need to increase this further. Moreso, a lot of these students have returned to school and if we want to create a safe environment, we would want to make sure that they’re fully vaccinated.”
Dr Anthony has outlined that parental consent is still a challenging factor in improving the immunisation rate among this age group – which the Ministry is aiming to tackle with special programmes in conjunction with the Education Ministry in coming weeks.
“While we have been working closely with the Ministry of Education, sometimes it’s hard to get that parental consent. Over the next couple of weeks, we will be intensifying our efforts with the Ministry of Education in the hope that we can take up these numbers. We will have some special vaccination programmes in school. We will notify the schools beforehand so that messages can be sent with the students to the parents. Hopefully, more of them would consent for their child to get vaccinated in school.”
In addition, the administration of booster doses is another facet which the Ministry has been working to improve. So far, 46,217 persons have taken their shots – which Dr Anthony regarded as “relatively low”.
“If you have had your two doses already, now you need to get your booster doses once you would have completed that five-month time interval. We keep explaining to people, five months after the second doses, the level of antibodies in their systems starts waning and if it wanes, then you would not be fully protected,” the Minister outlined. (G12)