Reduction in COVID-19 spread and deaths expected with increased vaccination -Health Minister

Reduction in COVID-19 spread and deaths expected with increased vaccination -Health Minister

The Minister of Health believes once Guyana’s full vaccination rate reaches 75% of the adult population, the country will see a turnaround in new Coronavirus cases and deaths.

The month of September saw the highest number of new cases and the highest number of deaths recorded in a single month since the pandemic was first recorded in the country in March 2020.

Based on the latest figures released by the Ministry of Health, 70% of the country’s adult population has received the first dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines, while 39% of the population has been fully vaccinated.

The Minister said the country needs to push that fully vaccinated figure above the 75% mark.

“All the places have to keep working to improve the vaccination rate, we have to get these numbers of second dose close to 75%. Once we get that we will start to see a turnaround of the cases”, Minister Anthony said.

With a number of vaccination drives set to take place this weekend and additional vaccines from Pfizer expected next week, the Health Ministry is hoping that more persons will show up to be vaccinated.

Those who have received the first dose of one of the vaccines are also being encouraged to return for their second dose to complete the vaccination process.

“We know that vaccines can help to reduce transmission. They also would certainly help to reduce people going into hospitals and reduce deaths. So, if you have cases going up and vaccination rates are low, we are going to see a lot of people coming into the hospital. So, to prevent that we have a window of opportunities whereby we can now get more people vaccinated. So, those Regions that have relatively low vaccination rates, I want to make a special appeal to them to ensure that they get people out to go and get their vaccines” Minister Anthony said.

Regions 2, 8, and 10 continue to have low vaccination rates, with Region 10 having the lowest.

The Ministry is planning to roll out additional information to address issues related to vaccine hesitancy and to encourage more persons to get vaccinated.

You must be logged in to post a comment Login