The use of the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been minimal since its arrival according to Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony who also noted that Guyana has not had any issue with the expiration of COVID-19 shots here.
This was disclosed during the Minister’s daily COVID-19 update where he stated that 104 shots of that vaccine has been administered here thus far. Guyana in late August received 34,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine which the minister noted would be used mostly in hinterland communities.
During the update he stated, “So far our work with J&J has been very minimal, as you know we want to get these vaccines out to the most remote areas and so far we have only administered about 104 doses.” This he noted is going to change as teams go out to the remote areas soon.
Stabroek News posed the question as to whether these numbers will be added to the second dose or fully vaccinated numbers as one shot of the vaccine constitutes full inoculation. The response was that those numbers can be added to that figure however further guidance may be needed down the line as a result of recent findings.
“But the more recent findings from J&J is that they might change from a single-dose vaccine to a two-dose vaccine, because they’re seeing that when you use two doses it is becoming more effective [so] we are waiting on that guidance…,” Dr Anthony noted while adding that the company has not yet made a conclusion on those findings.
The minister also informed that the data as it relates to persons who were given this vaccine has been added to the current inoculation numbers even though it is not very significant at this point.
Meanwhile, when asked whether authorities here have had any issues with expiration of vaccines given the number received thus far, Anthony stated that the ministry has not had to discard any vaccines due to expiration.
“Well so far we have been able to manage, we haven’t had to dump any expired vaccines because we have been constantly monitoring expiry dates and making sure that we can get those vaccines out,” the minister said.
