Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony, says in spite of the delays in getting the second dose Sputnik V vaccine, persons should not be afraid to take the first dose or any other vaccine to protect themselves against the life-threatening novel coronavirus.
During Tuesday’s COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said there is a worldwide shortage of the vaccine. However, he said latest news from the Russian Direct Investment Fund states that persons who took the first dose Sputnik V will be protected for an even longer interval.
“We also have the Sputnik V vaccine, and we have administered quite a lot of that to people and I know a lot of people are waiting on the second dose vaccine, so that is something that we are working on and hopefully we will be able to resolve that shortly.
“The Russian Direct Investment Fund, had advised that you can prolong the interval between first and second dose up to 90 days. Now, there is more recent advice published by Reuters on the 9th July. They are indicating that you can actually go up to 180 days. So, [with] that interval, a lot of people who have taken their first dose would not have exhausted that long interval,” Minister Anthony stated.
Moreover, the Health Minister said Government is working to procure more second dose vaccines for the approximately 80,000 persons waiting.
“So, I would encourage people to continue to get their first dose because we are going to address this, everybody who took the first dose would be able to get their second.”
Thus far, 337,030 adults (65.7%) of the adult population have taken their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 175,037 persons or (34.1%) are now fully vaccinated against the disease. Another 18,862 (25.9%) children between ages 12-17 have been administered the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]
