Persons who are 40 years and older will soon be able get access to the Covid-19 vaccines, President Dr Irfaan Ali announced today during an address to the nation.
The vaccines are currently being administered to persons 60 years and above as well as frontline healthcare workers.
But the Head of State said, from next week, persons as young as 40 will be able to get the vaccine.
The President said the goal is to start vaccinating 10,000 persons per day. He said the strategy is to first vaccinate enough persons to achieve herd immunity, and eventually, to vaccinate the entire population.
To date, over 25,000 persons have been vaccinated.
Moving forward, the Head of State said the vaccination programme will take on a more integrated approach involving members of civil society, medical and nursing students as well as the medical brigade of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF).
He said these individuals will be trained to assist in the documentation of persons in order to expedite the vaccination process. He noted too that they will be vaccinated beforehand.
The Government has already received 103,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, the latest being a batch of 80,000 of the AstraZeneca from India. It received 20,000 doses of Sinopharm from the People’s Republic of China and 3,000 of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados.
Guyana has also procured 200,000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine from Russia, of which the first shipment of 50,000 will arrive by month-end.
President Ali disclosed that the government is actively pursuing the procurement of more vaccines. He urged the population to continue to adhere to the safety guidelines and protocols put in place to protect the population from the spread of the life-threatening virus.
A total of 221 persons have died as a result of infection. Overall, the country has recorded 9820 positive cases to date.
