Despite removing the national COVID-19 curfew and relaxing several other measures that were aimed at containing the spread of COVID-19, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony today said that the country is still to be fully re-opened. He said such a move will only take place when more persons come forward and get vaccinated. The Health Ministry is now trying to get more fully vaccinated persons to get the booster doses.
‘Countries right now that are working to open up their economies are countries where they have had high vaccination rates not just with the two doses but also the booster dose and because of that they are able to open up their economy with very little consequences but we are not there yet because our booster doses the uptake is still relatively low,” the Health Minister said during today’s COVID-19 update.
Over 46,000 booster shots have been administered, with Region Four accounting for the highest number of booster doses.
While the Health Minister speaks about the country only being allowed to fully reopen when more persons get vaccinated, other sections of his government have been operating as business as usual for months. Large public gathering events are being hosted regularly and the removal of the curfew has cleared the way for the country’s nightlife to be fully functional again.
The Minister said he still wants to see more communities encourage their people to get vaccinated.
“We can create access; we can make the vaccines available but it is the people to come and get vaccinated this is a two-way process while we are making a lot of efforts with these things to see that special effort from people. So whether its the community, community leaders, religious leaders, business leaders everybody they have a role to play to encourage the population to come and get vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony said.
In terms of general vaccination, Guyana has administered over 430,000 first doses, which represents 83.9% of the adult population.
Almost 395,000 have now been fully vaccinated and that represents 63% of the population.
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