The government is budgeting $ 750M for the acquisition of the COVID-19 vaccine
Vaccines for covid-19
Kaieteur News – The government plans to use $ 750 million in 2021 to procure COVID-19 vaccines to immunize Guyana’s population.
The announcement was made by the Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Ashni Singh, as he presented the 2021 Budget in the National Assembly yesterday.
In announcing allocations for the health sector, Singh noted that the COVID-19 pandemic would have had a tremendous impact on Guyana’s health sector and the rest of the health sectors in the rest of the world. In light of that, his government has sought to push forward the pandemic by increasing testing and surveillance capacity, assisting homes and are now struggling to procure thousands of vaccines to immunize the population against the virus.
He said the speed of herd immunity is still unknown and his administration faced an unknown fight with limited fiscal resources given that the public treasury would have been depleted over the past five years. “But recover we must and we will recover,” Singh noted.
He noted when his administration took office in August that infection levels were higher, with low levels of testing. According to Singh, there were about 21 tests carried out each day that increased to 200 when the new administration came to power in August.
Singh further noted that his government had been clear and unwavering in its commitment to put frontline workers first as they battled the pandemic. He reflected on Thursday’s events where the government kick-started immunization with frontline workers from Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation and Liliendaal Infectious Disease Hospital better known as Ocean View Hospital COVID-19. Those vaccines came as a gift from Barbados, in 3,000 doses.
He went on to say that frontline workers, the elderly and people with comorbidities are a top priority for immunization and the administration will continue in a phased manner.
Notably, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo noted earlier this week that the government hopes to have all Guyanese vaccinated by the end of the year. The government has already announced that it will buy 140,000 doses of vaccines in agreement with CARICOM-African Union. It was also revealed that the government uses bilateral ties to get vaccines. To date, they have already engaged with the Russian and Chinese governments.
Notably, besides procurement, the country is also expected to benefit from providing vaccines from the COVAX Facility to cover 20% of the population. That will be 104,000 doses.
A donation of 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine is also expected from the Chinese Government.