Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has said that increased calls by the public led to the government’s decision to extend the National COVID-19 Vaccination Pro-gramme to its entire adult population, although Guyana is yet to acquire enough COVID-19 vaccines to immunise everyone.
“We are trying to immunise as many persons as possible… We think it’s the appropriate time now because we have been getting a lot of calls from the public to reduce the age, so we have gone to 18 years and above. All the vaccines that we currently have in Guyana are being used in the adult population and if we are going to achieve herd immunity it means that we are going to have to get most of our adult population immunised and, in an effort to do so, we have lowered the age,” Anthony explained during a COVID-19 update on Friday.
The decision to extend the vaccination programme to persons 18 years and older was announced via Facebook on Thursday by Advisor to the Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy.
Anthony acknowledged that there currently is not enough COVID-19 vaccines to immunise the entire population but stated that the government is working tirelessly to acquire more so that every adult in Guyana would be able to get vaccinated against the virus.
He noted that some 500,000 adults would need to be vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity as the vaccines available in Guyana are not for children who are included in Guyana’s total population of over 700,000. As of Thursday, he said, more than 73,000 persons received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
‘Worrying trend’
Anthony added that COVID-19 infections have always been highest in adults between ages 20 and 35 and this shows that the virus is more active in this age range although most of these persons have experienced mild forms of the disease, until more recently when the ministry began seeing an increase in the hospitalisation in young adults who were infected with COVID-19.
“Our challenge over the last couple of weeks is that we have seen younger persons coming into the hospital and we have also seen relatively young persons probably between 40 and so forth who would’ve have some amount of comorbidities and they would’ve come into the hospital with severe form of COVID and then die. This is a worrying trend and so we would’ve been examining the data to see how many cases we would’ve had and what we can do about it,” he added before saying that to avoid hospitalisation, and by extension death, all persons 18 years and older should make an effort get vaccinated now that the programme is open to all adults.
In addition, he said that the chance of getting infected after receiving the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccines varies but persons will only experience a mild form of the virus and will be treated based on the symptoms they are displaying. Further, he said, it would be a rare for someone who would’ve gotten vaccinated to get severe form of the disease.
Due to the continued increase in COVID-19 cases and a suggestion by the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) that variants may be linked, Opposition Leader Joseph Harmon on Friday bemoaned that government has not put systems in place to confirm the development. “The measures which the administration has put in place are weak and are being selectively enforced. The use of GDF buses with persons crammed into them presents a disturbing image and can increase rather than hinder the spread of the virus,” he further said in a statement, while accusing the government of a resigned approach.
On Thursday, Alliance for Change (AFC) leader Khemraj Ramjattan voiced his party’s concern that enough is not being done by government to tackle COVID-19 and called for stricter monitoring of the country’s borders.
Speaking during a virtual press conference, Ramjattan also urged citizens to play their role in following the necessary guidelines to protect themselves and those around them from contracting the virus. “While the administration has a significant role to play in reversing the pandemic, the AFC wishes to remind citizens that we all have a primary responsibility to ourselves to take care and protect our health. Our human resource is our most precious resource,” Ramjattan said.
According to Ramjattan, the AFC is calling for the “sealing off” and “robust monitoring” of the country’s borders that is not limited to the official point of entry and monitoring of the roads connecting the hinterland with Linden and the coastland.
He noted that over the past few months, new variants of COVID-19 has been found in countries around the world. “…Other countries are also being affected, a clear indication that, globally, we are not on top of this pandemic. While we sympathise with our neighbours, we need to take every precaution to isolate ourselves,” Ramjattan said.
He further added that the AFC believes that the Guyana Police Force should be more involved in enforcing the guidelines. This includes the inspection of public transportation to ensure all passengers are wearing a mask properly, stopping persons on the streets who does not have on a mask and after curfew patrols of bars, restaurants and nightclubs, Ramjattan noted.
Apart from the guidelines, Ramjattan is advising persons who are eligible to get vaccinated.
“We observed persons not wearing masks and a number not seemingly confident about taking the vaccines available. The AFC urges that wearing masks and getting vaccinated are integral in this fight against the virus,” he said.
Difficulties
Meanwhile, Anthony stated that all of health workers in Region Nine have been vaccinated but all regions across the country still have difficulties in convinc-ing persons to get vaccinated. He subse-quently applauded health care workers in the hinterland areas who have been travelling across their respective regions to far-flung communities to vaccinate persons despite the rough terrain.
“There is an additional challenge especially with these regions because while we go out to those far flung com-munities we still have to maintain cold chain storage for those vaccines,” he revealed while stating that so far the staff has been doing an exceptional job in doing so.
Anthony noted that the rollout of the campaign has been much easier on the coast and they have partnered with a number of religious and community organisations to increase vaccination sites and to elicit a better response.
“No one is safe until everyone is vaccinated and here in Guyana we have to encourage friends and family to get the vaccine and once people get immunised we will achieved herd immunity,” he said.
Currently, only three COVID-19 vaccines are available in Guyana—the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik V.
The rollout of the vaccine campaign began in February with health care workers being the first to receive their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The programme was then extended to persons 60 years and older after which age eligibility was lowered to 40 years and above.
