The Ministry of Health is stepping up its efforts to get more fully vaccinated persons to get their booster dose for enhanced protection against COVID-19.

Guyana has more than 300,000 fully vaccinated persons and so far, just over 18,000 persons have returned to the clinics and vaccination centres for their booster doses.

The Ministry of Health has noted an increase in the number of persons seeking the booster shots in the past week as the country finds itself facing a surge in new cases, believed to be caused by the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

During his COVID-19 update today, the Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said there is an adequate amount of booster shots available and fully vaccinated persons need to take advantage of the booster doses.

“We are recommending that any person who has met the time required to come in and get their boosters because we have seen these boosters work and they have reduced your chances of getting hospitalized”, Dr. Anthony said.

It was explained that a person is eligible for a booster dose five months after they were fully vaccinated in the case of the two-dose vaccines. However, in the case of the one-shot Johnson and Johnson vaccine, persons can take their booster dose two months after that one-shot.

For persons who were vaccinated with the Russian-made Sputnik vaccine, they can receive the Johnson and Johnson or Pfizer vaccine as their booster shot.

The Minister said persons need to be reminded that by being vaccinated, they are safeguarding themselves against hospitalization from the virus if they become infected.

He said with the Omicron variant of COVID-19, while there is an increase in infections and greater spread, persons are not being hospitalised with the virus since the Omicron variant appears to have very mild symptoms.

In the past week, Guyana has recorded more than 4000 new cases of COVID-19. In the past 24hours alone, more than 400 new cases were recorded with every region reporting an increase in new cases.

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