Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has indicated that he does not anticipate any major disruptions to the delivery of healthcare services countrywide, as most of the healthcare workers are vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
He made these remarks when asked to comment on the impact the “lock out” of unvaccinated healthcare workers will have on the system.
“I think right now, a substantial portion of the health workforce have actually gotten the vaccine. There are some who still did not get their vaccine, and they’re in the minority,” the Health Minister posited.
He noted too that hospitals across the country have already put systems in place to deal with the shortfall of staff.
“What the hospitals have done is to make arrangements so that the shifts are covered and we’ll see what happens after that,” Dr Anthony explained.
Nevertheless, he encouraged those healthcare workers who remain unvaccinated to understand the importance of becoming immunised as a means out of this pandemic.
“When this all started, you remember we called healthcare workers “frontline workers” because they were the barrier between us and this virus, and one of the best way of protecting our healthcare workers is to make sure they get vaccinated,” the Health Minister expressed.
In updated Covid-19 measures which took effect August 1, the Guyana Government mandated that healthcare workers be vaccinated against the life-threatening virus. Failure to do so would mean that they will be required to submit regular PCR tests to prove that they are not infected with the disease.
At the time, several of these persons had taken to the streets to protest against the measures, causing government to announce on August 11, a two-week timeframe within which they were urged to reconsider their stance and get vaccinated.
This period expired today and many workers who still refused to get vaccinated turned up to work where they were denied entry since they did not produce a negative Covid-19 test.
