Region Nine undertakes house-to-house COVID-19 vaccination drive

he Regional Democratic Council of Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo (Region Nine) on Wednesday launched a house-to-house vaccination programme to ensure persons are protected against COVID-19.

Regional Chairman Mr. Bryan Allicock said the initiative is currently focused in Lethem central and the St. Ignatius communities, which have a high number of Covid positive cases.

“There is an increase in cases like St. Ignatius to 65, which is not good, you know. There is also our secondary school within the village where students will soon be taking their examinations shortly, so we want to do everything that we can for our youths.

There are some people who do not like to go to the hospital to get vaccinated, so we are taking it there to them to not only increase our vaccination rate but protect them, as promised by our Government.”

The Regional Chairman said an intense sensitisation campaign will also be undertaken to further boost the Region’s efforts to ensure residents seize the opportunity to be vaccinated.

He said the campaign will also allow him a platform to address his own experience with the disease.

“My driver was tested positive for COVID-19, while I came back negative which I believe is due to me being fully vaccinated,” he explained.

Mr. Allicock said the Regional Administration will meet with various sub-district leaders on June 21, to discuss the importance of the vaccine and their need to encourage others to get inoculated.

The Regional Administration recently handed over a $3 million minibus to the health department to help boost the immunisation campaign, which started earlier this year.

“We have several Covid teams here for the vaccination programme and very often they have to be transported in a pick-up in the far-end rugged areas whereas the minibus can transverse very easily,” he said.

The Regional Chairman said the new bus will allow the medical staff to be comfortable and observe the gazetted COVID-19 precautionary measures.

“The doctors and nurses have said that they are more comfortable in the bus to conduct their work as opposed to being piled up in the pick-up to do so. A smaller team can use the pick-up to visit the far-end communities of the Region because we are talking about hundreds of miles in rough terrain.”

Since the commencement of this vaccination campaign in the Region mid-March, residents have been responding positively. However, immunisation efforts have been ramped-up due to more Covid positive diagnoses.