Guyana to receive additional 100,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine via COVAX

Guyana: Guyana will receive additional 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine under the COVAX facility. These COVID-19 vaccines are expected to arrive on Monday.

The announcement was made by the Health Minister of Guyana – Dr Frank Anthony while providing an update on COVID-19. He cited that, “This is the first time that we will be receiving Pfizer vaccine from COVAX.”

The Health Minister highlighted that Guyana on Wednesday recorded its highest vaccination rate in a given day by vaccinating 9,946 either with the first or second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Out of these, a total of 1, 029 were adults and 530 children who took their first dose. In terms of the second dose, 6 655 persons were adults and 1,732 were children.

“I want to again commend the staff for being out there and working hard yesterday, and I want to commend the public because although people had to wait, they did so in an orderly way, and that facilitated everybody getting their vaccine,”

Earlier the island country received COVID-19 vaccine doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility.

So far, a total of 358,237 individuals, that is 69.8 per cent of the country’s adult population have taken the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 192,672 people or 37.6 per cent have taken both doses and are considered fully immunized.

Meanwhile, 24,194 children, or 33.2 per cent of the population of children, received the Pfizer vaccine. In addition to this, the Health Minister complimented the vaccination staff for a job well done, as well as the public for being patient and maintaining order at the COVID-19 vaccination sites.

The Health Ministry on Friday denied the rumours of a social media post which alleges that a child died after receiving the Pzifer COVID-19 vaccine in Guyana.

It states, “The Ministry of Health – (MOH) would like the public to know that no such vaccine-related incident occurred in Nabaclis or anywhere else in Guyana.”