Shortage in Sputnik V may be due to Russia’s Covid spike -Minister Anthony

Minister of Health Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says the delay in the arrival of the second doses of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine may be due to Moscow’s spike in the Delta variant of COVID-19.

The Minister made this statement on the side-lines of an event on Monday.

“You would see that there are spikes in Moscow, of the Delta variant, and that might be one of the reasons why we are having difficulty in getting the supplies that are needed…

They have accelerated vaccination of their own population but we are working to see how fast we can get those second doses in,” he said.

Minister Anthony said he is hopeful that Guyana will receive the second doses soon so persons can be fully immunised against a severe form of Covid. Persons are due to receive the second dose of the vaccine 12 weeks after having been inoculated with the first.

While there has been no confirmation of any new strains of the disease in Guyana, Minister Anthony encourages the public to continue to observe all of the gazetted COVID-19 precautionary measures.

“From the epidemiological picture that we would have seen over the last couple of months, with more cases and severity of disease, certainly there are some form of variant that differs from the original strain that is circulating in Guyana,” he said.

Minister Anthony said it is possible that the P1 variant might be circulating here and the best protection is vaccination.

As such, he advises all eligible adults to get vaccinated and persons who are due for their second doses to get fully immunised.

To date, 227,690 eligible adults have received their first dose of a Covid vaccine, reflecting about 46.8 per cent of the population. Some 98,635 persons have also received their second doses.