Over 86,000 persons receive 1st COVID-19 vaccine

…38 new cases reported in 1 day

Within the course of Guyana’s countrywide COVID-19 vaccination programme, over 86,000 persons were vaccinated – a remarkable success for the Health Ministry, Minister Dr Frank Anthony has said.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony announced on Monday that outreach teams in the various communities contributed to this figure over the weekend.
“As of yesterday, we’ve had approximately 86,601 persons who were vaccinated across Guyana. We had a good weekend because we had a number of outreach teams in all the regions working to get vaccines out to those communities. I think the response has been very good throughout Guyana,” the Minister said.
Amid concerns from the public about insufficient vaccines for the second dose, the Minister clarified that from every tranche, doses are reserved for the next jab.
“With the AstraZeneca vaccine, whatever you use for the first dose, you have to use a similar vaccine for the second dose. When we received the 80,000 from India, we used 40,000 to immunise people and we kept back 40,000. So, every person who receive a vaccine, we have the second dose set aside.”
He added, “Again, when persons would be ready for their second dose with the Sputnik V, we’ll have those doses available. So, I don’t think there should be any worry pertaining to whether you’ll get both doses because we have set aside your second dose.”
Recently, Guyana joined Caricom’s call for an equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines and appealed to international financial institutions to provide low-cost financing to all developing countries, particularly small states.

New cases
Guyana’s active coronavirus cases are now at 1384, after 38 new positives were detected within the course of one day. Saturday’s dashboard saw the overall positives rising to 11,901 – 6024 males and 5877 females. The number of deaths remains at 271.
Some 13 patients are seeking treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), while 71 are in institutional isolation, 1294 in home isolation and 10 in institutional quarantine. The country has seen 10,246 recoveries. Meanwhile, 108,207 individuals were tested thus far.
Of the new positives, two were from Region One (Barima-Waini), 70 from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), seven in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), three in Region Five (Demerara-Mahaica), 14 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and two in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Cases in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remain at 1038, 994, 247, and 481 respectively.
The National COVID-19 Task Force Secretariat sent a reminder to citizens on Monday that the gazetted COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No 16) for the period April 1 to April 30, 2021, remain unchanged and in force.
As a result, the curfew period remains from 22:30h to 04:00h. Only essential services are authorised to operate on a 24-hour basis. Other services are expected to close operations by 21:30h.
“All persons involved in essential services should have in their possession a valid company identification card, accompanied by a letter from their employer verifying that they are performing essential services at a specified area/location,” the Task Force notified. (G12)