Health Ministry still has no word on arrival of Sputnik 2nd doses

Thousands of persons are now entering their ninth week since they got the first dose and are worried about whether the second dose will be here soon before the 12-week period between the first and second doses expire.

Health Ministry still has no word on arrival of Sputnik 2nd doses

One month since the Ministry of Health announced that it had run out of 2nd dose shots of the Sputnik COVID-19 vaccine, it still has no definitive timeline on when the shipment of second dose vaccines will arrive.

Thousands of persons are now entering their ninth week since they got the first dose and are worried about whether the second dose will be here soon before the 12-week period between the first and second doses expire.

The Ministry of Health has only indicated that it is hoping that the vaccines will be here soon.

The Health Ministry is still moving ahead with the administration of more first doses although there are thousands of persons already in line awaiting a second dose.

Based on the information provided by the Ministry of Health, Guyana has so far received 305,000 Spunik vaccine with only 61,000 of those being the second dose. All of the second doses received have been administered with more than 100,000 persons in line awaiting their second dose.

A senior medical official today told News Source that while the 2nd dose could be administered after the 12-week timeline, it is unclear whether it will still be effective since the researchers have clearly indicated their timeline between doses for the best efficacy.

Efficacy could be lost if the second dose is administered long after the 12-week period that is recommended for it to be taken after the first dose.

Today, the Health Minister did not address the issue of the Sputnik vaccine in his daily update. However, he announced that 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine are expected within days. The arrival date of additional Astrazeneca vaccine and the recently purchased Johnson & Johnson vaccine is also not clear.

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