Government is spending approximately US$4 million to acquire the expected 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine, according to President Irfaan Ali, who on Friday reiterated that his administration is not sparing any effort or resource in ensuring that the entire population is immunised against COVID-19.
“This is of the utmost priority for me. Personally, I am taking this one as a task in ensuring that one, our population is vaccinated; [and] two, as quickly as possible, we can return our country to some level of normal and get out of this pandemic,” Ali said.
Speaking to reporters at the sidelines of an event held at State House, Ali noted that Guyana is slated to receive 200,000 doses of the Sputnik vaccine next week.
“Right now, they are finalising the logistics to bring that 200,000 in. We have established a supply chain, we have established the storage facility. We had meetings with the private sector because we have to bring all the storage capacity together to get this done,” he said.
Ali noted that the cost per dose is US$20.
He added that plans are also underway to source another 200,000 doses.
Ali explained that while the vaccines are expensive, the health of the population is “very critical”.
Once the vaccine arrives, Ali said the vaccination of persons over the age of 40 will commence.
Over the last few weeks, the government had reported silence from the World Health Organization’s COVAX facility on how much of the badly needed vaccines would be supplied to Guyana and when.
On Thursday, the PAHO/WHO website stated that 33,600 doses of the AstraZeneca jab are in transit to Guyana and the shipment is expected on Monday. That figure has since been updated to 24,000.
Guyana was originally expecting an initial total of just over 100,000 but COVAX has experienced severe supply problems and had to reduce allocations until the supply chain is less encumbered.
The aim, according to Ali, is to vaccination 10,000 persons per a day.
To achieve this, he said efforts are already being place to save time with the establishment of a pre-vaccination system across the country.
“What we are trying to do is we are trying to do is to start a pre-vaccination system, have the forms available in the communities and online so that people can fill it up and then to call people in batches at the different centres that we will set up all across the country,” Ali explained.
Members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) medical unit and medical students will be trained to undertake this aspect of the process.
“I am very confident that we will see by next weekend a major push in the vaccination and lots more Guyanese vaccinated,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Ali also announced that after “great” discussions, the manufacturers of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have related that they would not be available to Guyana until 2022.
“We had great discussions with the company [Pfizer] directly and then we were told that this can only be available 2022. Same with the Moderna,” Ali said.
“The AstraZeneca, we have contacted the company directly…But again the production lines are being stressed right now globally,” he added.
Ali urged the public to remain cautious and follow all the necessary COVID-19 safety guidelines since vaccination is not a solution and persons can still become infected even after being vaccinated.
“Even with vaccination, we still have to be safe. You still have to continue wearing your masks and we still have to take the guidelines seriously. A lot of people think after they are vaccinated they can take off their masks and walk all over the place. But you can still become infected,” he warned.
