12,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines to arrive tomorrow – Min. Anthony

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says his Ministry has begun the distribution of the first purchased shipment of the Sinopharm vaccine in the regions. On Wednesday, Guyana received some 88,000 of the 100,000 doses of the vaccine purchased from the Peoples Republic of China. The remaining 12,000 doses will arrive on Saturday. Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony During Thursday’s COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said the Sinopharm vaccine does not require cold storage and therefore distribution would not be a challenge, especially in the interior regions. “We have started the distribution of those that we have received, so we’re sending them out to the region and one of the advantages with this particular vaccine is, it does not require ultra-cold storage, or the really cold storage, which is minus 20 (degrees Celsius). These are vaccines that can be stored from two to eight, so we're very happy with that because it allows us to move them to very remote places as well,” Minister Anthony said. This is the second consignment of Sinopharm vaccines to be used in Guyana. The first consignment of 20,000 doses was donated by the Chinese Government in early March. Meanwhile, the Health Minister said the country is still some distance away from achieving herd immunity, as only 22.7 per cent of the population has been fully immunised. As such, the Minister is again encouraging eligible adults to take their COVID-19 jabs. “The vaccines that we have would certainly help us to get there, but we need people to come forward and take the vaccines, and I'm very hopeful that more and more people will understand the importance of getting vaccinated because without vaccination, you are putting yourself and your family at risk.” As of Wednesday evening, 233,756 persons have taken their first dose, while a total of 110,710 persons have been fully immunised against the deadly disease.

The remaining 12, 000 doses of the purchased 100,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine are expected in the country tomorrow.

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony during today’s COVID-19 Update, confirmed the arrival of the vaccines.

“These vaccines are much easier to handle because basically you can store down between two to eight degrees Celsius. Unlike the other vaccines that we’ve been working with which requires very cool temperature. So, in some of the more remote areas, our core chain already caters for vaccines, and therefore this will certainly help,” Minister Anthony said.

The 12,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccines are the reminder from the 100,000 doses the Government of Guyana bought from the People’s Republic of China, to ensure every adult gets vaccinated.

The entire batch will ensure 50,000 persons are fully vaccinated.

As the Government’s Covid vaccination campaign continues, more than 48 per cent of the adult population has taken the first dose of the vaccine.

“As of yesterday, we have 234,255 persons with first dose vaccines and again that would represent 48.1% of our adult population. We want to encourage more persons to come out and get their first dose vaccines…Second dose vaccines right now, we’re at 112,371 persons who would have received their second dose vaccines, which would put us approximately 23.1% of our adult population.”

Meanwhile, Minister Anthony said the vaccination campaign is resuming in remote hinterland villages which were inaccessible due to flooding. The Minister is encouraging all adults to take the COVID-19 vaccine to push Guyana closer to achieving herd immunity. The aim is to have approximately 500,000 adults vaccinated.