Johnson & Johnson vaccines will ease rollout in hinterland – Health Minister

The 150,000 Johnson and Johnson vaccines which Guyana is set to receive by June will significantly assist the health sector in immunising hinterland and remote communities.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony expressed during Monday’s COVID-19 update that the single-dose advantage of this vaccine will enable an easier rollout in hinterland communities and other remoted areas.
“We’re hopeful that during June, that we’ll be able to get the vaccines. What we were told is that the vaccines would be the J&J vaccine, which is the one-dose vaccine. I think once we’re able to get that, it would be very appropriate for us to use that, especially in the interior areas because some of those areas are very difficult to reach and if you give the one shot, then that would be very helpful for the staff out there,” the Minister said.
Government has made a down payment of US$36,000 for the acquisition of 150,000 vaccines through a partnership between the African Union and the Caribbean Community to make vaccines accessible to the region. In total, some 1.5 million doses of vaccines will be available to the Caribbean through this agreement.
Other provisions are in place to have more Sputnik V vaccines, and the remainder from the COVAX mechanism. Meanwhile, those persons who have not taken their second doses as yet were encouraged to do so, since it will ultimately enhance protection against the novel disease.
“I want to make a special appeal to those persons who received their Sinopharm vaccines, please come and get your second dose. We want to make sure you get your second dose so that the efficacy can go up. We’re really happy that people came forward in getting their first dose vaccines…However, when you get your first dose, the story is not over because we still see a few people can get infected after the first dose.”
Additionally, the Minister outlined that from the completely vaccinated population, there has not been any infections or hospitalisation brought on by the virus.
He assured, “We want people to come back and get their second dose because we have seen that everyone who got the second dose are not getting the infection. We haven’t had any case of any person who is fully vaccinated coming into the hospital. We have had no case of someone fully vaccinated getting in the ICU nor have we had any case of someone fully vaccinated dying from COVID.”
COVAX had promised to deliver vaccines to cover 20 per cent of the population at zero cost, and had already sent 62,400 doses earlier this year. Guyana has also used 80,000 AstraZeneca and 20,000 Sinopharm doses from the Indian and Chinese Governments, respectively, as well as 3000 from Barbados. From the purchase of 400,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, Guyana has already received over 205,000 doses.
The Health Minister also used the platform to remind persons that as soon as the delayed shipment of Sputnik V vaccines arrive, persons will be informed immediately to get their second dose.
“For those persons that got first dose Sputnik, we are going to get your second dose and as you know, we have extended the time anywhere between four weeks and 12 weeks. As soon as we get the second dose this week, we’ll announce it so those persons who are due can come and get their second doses,” he shared.

198,956 first doses
Some 198,956 first doses have been administered since the start of the vaccination campaign this year, amounting to 40.9 per cent of the eligible population. For second doses, the figure stands at 68,333 or 14 per cent. (G12)