More than 11,000 children between the ages 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony has revealed.
Since the beginning of the adolescents’ vaccination drive on September 1, some 24, 460 secondary school students have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. Of that amount, 11,601 children received the second dose.
With students becoming fully vaccinated, the Ministry of Education announced Thursday that students of Grades 10, 11 and 12 will return to face-to-face learning during October. The ministry said there will not be one fixed date for the reopening of all secondary schools, since it is being done according to the vaccination programme.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony said the Demerara-Mahaica (Region Four) continues to lead in the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination campaign.
The region’s overall first dose vaccination rate stands at 78.3 per cent, with second doses at 44.8 per cent.
Other regions for first dose include Region One with 76.8 per cent, Region Two with 57.3 per cent, Region Three, 66.6 per cent, Region Five, 68.6 per cent, Region Six, 71.3 per cent, Region Seven, 69.4 per cent, Region Eight, 44.1 per cent, Region Nine, 71.6 per cent and Region Ten with 29.7 per cent.
Meanwhile, second dose is as follows: Region One with 34.8 percent, Region Two, 33.5 percent, Region Three, 35.1 percent, Region Five, 41.2 percent, Region Six, 39.6 percent, Region Seven, 34.7 percent, Region Eight, 29.4 percent, Region Nine, 39.3 percent and Region Ten with 13.2 percent.
The health minister is urging more vaccination in Region 10, which has the lowest rate. He said Regions Two and Eight are also lagging.
“As you can see there, what we’re having is that Region Ten is not doing so well both in terms of first and second dose vaccination, because there are 29.7 [first dose] and 13.2 [second dose] …they still have a far way to go…
“All the places they need to keep working to improve their vaccination rate, we have to get these numbers up to, second dose closer to 75 percent, once we get that we’ll start see a turnaround of cases.”
Meanwhile, the minister said the number of persons taking their COVID-19 jabs has been improving as the country has again recorded its highest vaccination on Thursday.
“The total numbers as of yesterday, would be that for adults we have 359, 222 persons who would have received the first dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines. That really would put us now with 70 per cent of our adult population would receive at least one dose of the vaccine. We also have 199, 978 persons who received a second dose and so now we have 39 per cent of our adult population, who would have been fully vaccinated.”
The minister is urging persons to get vaccinated as it has been proven effective against the Coronavirus. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]
