With over 160 persons hospitalised with Covid-19 across the country, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has revealed that there is an increase in hospitalisations among the partially vaccinated population.
“We’ve seen an increase in hospitalisation among the unvaccinated [and] the partially vaccinated,” Dr Anthony. Time and again, the Health Minister has urged persons who are due for their second dose of a vaccine to ensure they take the jabs.
It was disclosed that there are over 80,000 persons in Guyana waiting for their second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine, which are in short supply globally.
In addition to Sputnik V, the country is utilising the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines to immunise its population – for which second doses are readily available.
There are 164 infected persons in the hospitals, with 30 in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Already in Guyana, a number of partially vaccinated as well as fully vaccinated persons have died as a result of Covid-19. Majority of the deaths are among the unvaccinated.
In this regard, the Minister is urging people to get vaccinated to stand a better chance to protect themselves against the life-threatening virus.
In fact, he said authorities are working aggressively to address the issue of vaccine hesitancy among communities.
“As we uncover these communities, we’re trying to work with community leaders and people with influence in those communities to see whether we can change the attitude towards vaccines in those areas,” the Minister stated.
So far, 348,534 adults have received their first dose of the vaccines which represents 67.9 per cent of the adult population while 179,965 or 35.1 per cent have been fully immunised.
For children, 20,896 or 28.7 per cent of that cohort have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccines.
