First consignment of Sinopharm vaccines arrive in Guyana

– to boost ongoing COVID-19 vaccination campaign

The first consignment of the Chinese made Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Guyana early Wednesday morning, with the remaining doses scheduled to arrive later this week.

Batch of the Sinopharm vaccine being transported off the plane at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony said Wednesday’s shipment was the first of 100,000 doses purchased from the People’s Republic of China.

Speaking during his daily COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said the 100,000 doses will see some 50,000 persons being immunised.

“As you would know that during the month, we spoke about the Government of Guyana purchasing 100,000 doses. So, the majority of those doses came in last night. And we will now do the count to see exactly how many we have received, and the rest of the shipment is going to be here by Saturday so with that final shipment on Saturday we should have all 100,000 in Guyana.

Batch of the Sinopharm vaccine being transported off the plane at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport

Minister Anthony said the shipment includes both first and second doses.

“As you know, the Sinopharm vaccine, what you give as your first dose, you also give that as a second dose, so we’ll be keeping 50,000 in storage, we will be distributing 50,000.”

“Starting from today, those vaccines that we have received will be distributed to the different regions. And again, we are hoping that people will come forward and get their vaccine because we will have your second dose waiting and ready,” Minister Anthony added.

Sinopharm vaccine purchased by the Government of Guyana from the People’s Republic of China

With the Sinopharm vaccine, the health minister explained that the four weeks interval between doses will continue. He said the efficacy is ‘quite good,’ and urged all eligible adults to take the jab.

“When we talk about efficacy, we want to talk about a couple of things here; how effective is the vaccine against preventing infection, how effective is the vaccine against preventing severe forms of the infection meaning hospitalisation, and how effective is the vaccine against preventing deaths, and in all three of these areas, the Sinopharm vaccine is around 70 something per cent. So, it’s really good.

I keep reiterating that we have not seen anybody who received both doses of their vaccine, having a severe form of COVID, meaning that they come into the hospital, ended up in the ICU or dying from COVID. So, it is important that people understand this and get both doses of their vaccines. So, we expect that people would come out and get their Sinopharm vaccine.” In early March, the Government of the People’s Republic of China donated 20,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine to Guyana. From that consignment approximately 10,000 persons were vaccinated against COVID-19.