Guyana has now recorded 900 COVID-19 deaths with 736 deaths or over 81 per cent of the total deaths to date occurring in 2021.
For October, there have been 101 deaths as of October 27, 2021. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 dashboard for today showed 82 new cases, 25 persons in the COVID-19 ICU and 2,926 in home isolation.
The vaccination rate now stands at over 377,000 for the first jab and over 237,000 for the second leaving a gap between the two doses of over 100,000.
In Monday’s COVID-19 update, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony said that there are still many persons who have not returned for their second dose. “We want to encourage those persons who have received a first dose to come forward and get their second dose as quickly as possible,” he said.
Currently, there are only second doses of AstraZeneca available. However, there are first and second doses of Sputnik and Sinopharm. The Johson and Johnson vaccine is also available but requires a booster shot after 52 days.
Meanwhile, over 26,000 children have received their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine and over 17,000 have received their second. While there was initial rapid uptake of the Pfizer vaccine, Minister Frank said that this has slowed resulting in a gap between first and second doses.
“Over the last week we have started to see a slow off where not as many children are coming forward to get vaccinated. We need this to go up back again because if children are not properly vaccinated it’s going to take a long time for us to return safely to school. Therefore, I would urge that parents take their children to get vaccinated,” he said.
Minister Frank said that Region Four is leading when it comes to COVID-19 vaccination at over 82 percent while all other regions are behind.
