COVID-19 vaccination campaign not affected by countries giving ‘booster shots’

– Minister Anthony

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, says Guyana’s vaccination campaign to prevent transmission of COVID-19 will not be affected by other countries giving their population booster shots (a third vaccine).

Minster Anthony made this statement during Friday’s COVID-19 Update.

The Minister said the World Health Organization (WHO) has already addressed the matter, urging countries to abide by the rules and to allow other countries still awaiting their first dose to access vaccines.

“Most of the world still has not received at least one dose of the vaccine yet… They have been some discussions about the third dose because some of the studies have shown that after the second dose of Pfizer, that six months after that second dose, the antibody levels tend to drop…

“So that’s one of the reasons why there have been a discussion on possibly doing a third dose. But most of the countries that have been thinking about this are considering it for some special circumstances… What we should think about if we want to exit the pandemic, we need to make sure that everyone, every adult would be able to get at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and better yet to get both doses, if it’s a two-dose vaccine.”

The Health Minister added that with both masks and vaccination, persons will be better protected and that is why it is important for the public to continue observing the basic COVID-19 Emergency Measures.

“Vaccination obviously works and it will protect people from getting infected; it will protect people from getting the more severe form of the disease, protects people from dying from COVID.

“We in Guyana, we did not discard our masking policy…. We have insisted that people continue to wear masks and so, we want to insist that even if you are vaccinated, that you continue to wear your mask.” Minister Anthony said according to the WHO moratorium, countries which are considering the booster shots can only administer same to persons with compromised immune systems.