Anthony appeals to public to take second doses of vaccines 

-says timeframe important to ensure effectiveness 

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony says while he is pleased that persons have been returning to take their booster vaccine against COVID-19, it is important to take the second jab at the specified time.

During last Friday’s COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony revealed the latest figures, which indicate approximately 33.6 per cent of the population has been inoculated with the first dose of the vaccine, and 4.4 per cent of the second dose.

“We’ve now had about 163,534 persons who have received their first dose of the vaccine, which would be approximately 33.6 per cent of our adult population. We have also been able to administer 21,203 second doses and so that will take us to 4.4 per cent of our adult population now being fully immunised,” Minister Anthony said.

Dr. Minister reminded citizens whose first jab was the AstraZeneca vaccine to check their return dates, and to ensure they presented themselves for their second doses. “We want to encourage everyone who got their first dose to come back and get their second dose. And, as you would realise because with the AstraZeneca vaccines that we have given out initially, it takes about 12 weeks for someone to come back for their second dose and so quite a few of them are falling due,” he said.

Minister Anthony said the time factor is important as this dictates the effectiveness of the vaccine. He said those who received the Sputnik V and Sinopharm vaccines should also be returning for their second doses. “We want to encourage them to check their vaccination cards to make sure that they know the date when they have to come back and get their second dose because for those two vaccines it’s a shorter timeframe, four weeks.

We want to make sure [they get] their second dose within that timeframe because that is when the vaccine would be able to work optimally.”

Meanwhile, the Government expects to receive another quota of Sputnik V vaccine soon.

“We’re expecting to get 68, 000 does of Sputnik V and we should be getting them shortly. So that would be both first and second dose of the vaccine because with Sputnik V, it’s two different types of vaccines, those that you get for your first dose is a different vaccine and those that you get for your second dose is a different one.” The Government of Guyana purchased 200,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia, which were delivered in consignments. In early April the first batch of 25,000 doses arrived, followed by another 30,000 doses. (DPI)