By Vishani Ragobeer
As efforts are made to protect the population from the serious effects of the disease, COVID-19, the Ministry of Health is seeking to vaccinate about 600,000 individuals, accounting for about 80 percent of the population, according to the Primary Director of Healthcare Services at the Ministry of Health, Dr. Ertenisa Hamilton.
During a recent forum on COVID-19 vaccines, organized by the Newsroom, Dr Hamilton highlighted that the local COVID-19 vaccine targets the adult population of Guyana, in a bid to ensure herd immunity, where a significant part of the population is immune to the disease.
“We have completely devolved this activity (vaccination) and the regions are the main drivers of the drive now,” said Dr. Hamilton.
On Monday, the Ministry of Health announced, via a post on its Facebook page, that 86,601 individuals were receiving their first dose of one of the three vaccines given in each administrative region. These vaccines are: the Oxford-AstraZeneca, the Sinopharm and the Sputnik V.
Dr. noted that Hamilton is also not a case where one vaccine is better than the other. In fact, he said all of the vaccines can prevent people contracting the more serious form of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19.
“At this time, we do not have enough data on whether these vaccines can completely prevent people from getting the disease but we have enough data to say that if you were vaccinated, you can be sure that you would not develop ‘ r the more serious form of the disease and hospitalization would be significantly reduced, ”explained the Director of Health.
He added, “Of course you can become infected, but you won’t be as ill.”
Research conducted, however, has shown that each COVID-19 vaccine has different efficacy; the efficacy, Dr. explained. Hamilton, refers to how well the vaccine worked in the controlled clinical trial setting.
In the meantime, the true effectiveness of the vaccines will be determined by how well these vaccines work in the real-world situation, that is, when administered in wider countries.
Clinical trials have found that the Sputnik V vaccine has an efficacy of about 92 percent, while the Sinopharm vaccine has an efficacy of 79.4 percent. The efficacy of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine reached about 82.4 percent once the second dose is given after about eight to 12 weeks.