More vaccines expected from COVAX, African Union agreement

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony MP says Guyana is expecting another consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX facility and the CARICOM/ African Union agreement, later this month.

The Minister made the disclosure during Tuesday’s COVID-19 Update.

“As you know, the Government has bought vaccines…we are going to continue to receive the vaccines that we’ve bought from the UAE [United Arab Emirates]. We have also been working with COVAX to get vaccines. Guyana is one of those AMC countries, and COVAX has promised us that they will be sending additional vaccines to Guyana, sometime between now, in July and September. So, anytime between July and September, we are expecting another shipment of COVAX vaccines.

We have also paid for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. And this is an arrangement that we have had with the African Union. So, we were required to pay for these vaccines which we did. And the latest information that we have is that they’ll be able to ship those vaccines to us in August,” Minister Anthony said.

The Minister said the arrival dates would be made public once they are confirmed.

In January, Guyana received 24,000 COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX.  In May, another consignment of 38,400 vaccines arrived through the same arrangement.

Government then purchased the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, followed by the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony said there has been an uptake in the AstraZeneca vaccine, with all first doses administered. He noted that only second dose AstraZeneca remains in stock. He assured citizens that Government has adequate AstraZeneca for the second doses.