President Ali encourages Nation to take COVID-19 vaccine

…as Govt continues to explore avenues to acquire additional doses

As the Government continues to roll out its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, President Dr Irfaan Ali, First Lady Arya Ali and Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo all received their first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The officials were inoculated at State House by medical personnel on Thursday evening.

In a statement after taking his first dose of the COVID-19 jab, President Ali urged all Guyanese to do the same.
“Whilst it is not mandatory, I want to urge you, as far as possible, to consider taking the vaccine. I’m sure that it will help us as we all work together in getting ahead of this pandemic,” he noted.
The Head of State further reassured the populace that his Government is sparing no resource to have every single Guyanese vaccinated before the end of the year.
“Only [Thursday], I had engagement with the Organisation of Islamic Conference. We continue to reach out directly to suppliers of the Russian vaccine (Sputnik V), Sinopharm, Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca. We’ve also reached out to other suppliers in the UAE, because you know it is becoming a global shortage in getting the vaccines itself,” he noted.

According to President Ali, “It is important for us to ensure that we explore every avenue, having access to these vaccines in a speedy manner, and ensuring that it fits into our plan of having the entire country vaccinated before the end of the year, so you can rest assured that we will continue to work aggressively on this.”
In fact, he disclosed that Government is expecting another batch of vaccines shortly, which will be rolled out in a phased manner to Guyanese.
Meanwhile, in a post on her Facebook page, the First Lady called the COVID vaccine a light at the end of the tunnel.

“I am grateful to the scientists, researchers and healthcare workers who have made this moment possible. When it’s your turn to receive a vaccine, please do your duty and take it. The vaccine reduces transmission, deaths and hospitalizations. The vaccine saves lives and reduces the burdens on our healthcare systems,” she stated.
However, Mrs Ali reminded that there is still a pandemic and implored citizens to continue to wear masks and maintain social distancing until the country reaches herd immunity.
“The end is near and we cannot let our guard down prematurely,” she cautioned.
Guyana rolled out the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines to frontline workers on February 11, after receiving 3000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados. Those jabs were used to vaccinate frontline healthcare workers.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony had said at the time that they would administer all 3000 vaccines as the first dose and await the arrival of follow-up jabs for the second dose.
Last Sunday, another 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine arrived here – a donation from the Indian Government. It was announced then that the vaccination exercise would be extended to members of the Joint Services and teachers.
Additionally, China had sent 20,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine to Guyana last week.
With these, Guyana’s stock had gone up to 100,000 but Dr Anthony had noted that it will not be enough for the country to reach heard immunity by the end of the year. As such, the Health Minister noted that they have been looking at other opportunities to procure more COVID-19 vaccines including in India, where trials are currently ongoing on at least 10 vaccines.
Indian High Commissioner Dr KJ Srinivasa had said on Sunday that his country recently approved an indigenous jab – COVAXIN, which was produced by Indian company Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council for Medical Research. The vaccine is now available for distribution across the world with over 81 per cent efficacy.
Meanwhile, Guyana is still awaiting the arrival of another 100,800 vaccines from the COVAX facility, which is expected sometime this month.
However, with the current rollout of these 100,000 doses from the Indian and Chinese Governments, the elderly population, that is, persons over the age of 60, are being vaccinated. Dr Anthony said on Thursday that efforts are underway to have Members of Parliament and Cabinet immunised during the current round.
“We’ve been talking to the Parliament and we’ve been making arrangements to ensure that MPs who would like to have their vaccines in this round, that we’re able to give the vaccines to them. I’m sure that over the next week or so, different members of the Cabinet would also be taking their vaccines,” the Minister said.
Already, former Presidents Donald Ramotar, Samuel Hinds and David Granger have taken their vaccine as well as Prime Minister Mark Phillips under the elderly group, ranging 60 years and older.
Now, the Health Minister is working with elderly homes to have residents there inoculated.