COVID-19 jab reaches adolescents in Regions Six, Nine

The ongoing vaccination campaign targeting adolescents has reached East Berbice/ Corentyne
(Region) Six and Upper Takutu/Upper Essequibo, (Region Nine) according to Health Minister,
Dr Frank Anthony during his daily ‘COVID-19 Update’.
Dr Anthony said since the start of the inoculation campaign for school children, some 6,020
children between the ages 12 to 17 have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine and 1,658
of these are from Essequibo Islands/West Demerara (Region Three).
“The rollout has been pretty good. We started out in Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica), moved
into Region Three, (and) also did some vaccinations in Region Nine and today we are going to
be in Region Six,” Dr Anthony said.
He disclosed there are vigorous ongoing training programmes of staff to help administer the
inoculant and ensure the timelines are met.
“We are also at the same time training the staff within the region to be able to administer these
vaccines. So, the first two weeks, it’s both doing vaccination and it’s a learning process for the
staff within the region, because we have some stuff that went up centrally to train, and as well as
supervise the vaccination,” the minister said.
“A lot of the staff who have now been trained would be able to roll out that independently. So,
we will see much more uptake, as the weeks go by. Right now, we’ve had 6,020 children who
would have received their first dose of US vaccine. And yesterday alone, in Region Three, and
some that we started in Region Nine, we would have completed just for yesterday, 1,658 doses.”
The health minister lauded parents for heeding the government’s call for their children to take
the jab to help stop the rampage of the contagious virus which has killed some 4.5 million
worldwide and more than 600 in Guyana.
Anthony said if Guyanese parents continue to heed the call to vaccinate school-aged children,
they could return to school safely after closure for more than 18 months following the outbreak

So far, 62.1 per cent of Guyanese has taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while
32.5 per cent of the population has been fully vaccinated.