With the government stepping up its push to get more persons vaccinated, the Minister of Health today announced that all unvaccinated persons will have to make appointments before they are allowed to visit any government ministry or agency for government services.

In the latest gazetted COVID-19 Health Regulations, it states that any member of the public who wishes to visit a government agency or ministry shall be vaccinated and for those who are unvaccinated, they must now make an appointment for an in-person visit.

The Government maintains that vaccination is not mandatory in Guyana, but the latest move to prohibit unvaccinated persons from visiting government agencies or ministries without an appointment could be seen as a push to force persons to get vaccinated.

The new regulation goes into effect from next Monday. It is unclear what systems the Government agencies will employ to deal with the new regulation.

Checks with a number of senior officials at some government agencies this morning revealed that many of them are unaware of the change.

The Government has not indicated how it intends to deal with Government workers who are unvaccinated since it is believed that more than 50% of the employees within the government are unvaccinated still.

More than 50% of Guyana’s adult population has now received the first dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines available here. Just over 30% of the adult population is fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

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