– said the Health Minister
With lingering concerns about the rise in the number of people in hospital with more severe symptoms of COVID-19, leading to an increase in deaths, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony, advised that hospitalization can be avoided if people take their vaccine.
“We have seen that many people have been hospitalized in Guyana and those hospitals could have been avoided had those individuals been fully vaccinated. We also had many deaths in Guyana and if you had been fully vaccinated, some of those deaths would have been prevented, ”the minister said.
He further reasoned: “It is important that people get their vaccine because it actually protects you from having the more serious forms of the disease, preventing you from going to hospital and preventing you from dying. ” Using Linden Town as an example, Thursday morning, during his daily COVID-19 update, Dr. Anthony said that five people are currently in hospital with more severe symptoms. Had those individuals received their COVID-19 vaccines, hospital admission could have been prevented.
“We have found that Region Ten (where Linden is based) is one of the regions that had few vaccines and we are working with different people in the region to see how we can increase ‘ the number of recipients, ”Dr. Anthony said. He acknowledged, however, that once people are convinced of the effectiveness of the vaccines, they will be more inclined to come forward and get those.
Guyana has been using three vaccines: Oxford-AstraZeneca Vaccines, manufactured by Serum Institute in India; the Chinese Sinopharm vaccines and Sputnik V Russian vaccine.
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. On the other hand, the Oxford-AstraZeneca has an efficacy of about 82.4 percent once the second dose is given after about eight to 12 weeks.
In the meantime, Dr. Anthony also reported that the Guyana Defense Force (GDF) deployed 400 ranks to assist in the nationwide vaccination effort. Medical personnel will assist directly with vaccination, while others will assist with registration and engagement.
Using this personnel, says Dr. Anthony, contributes to accelerating the introduction of vaccines.