Prime Minister and wife take COVID-19 vaccine

Prime Minister, Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips and his wife, Mignon Bowen-Phillips, on Wednesday morning, took their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

On Wednesday, the Ministry of Health commenced countrywide COVID-19 vaccination for persons 60 years and older. Prime Minister Phillips, who heads the COVID-19 Task Force, used the opportunity to reassure the public that there is nothing to fear about the vaccines.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, on Tuesday, revealed that the 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines that arrived here in recent days have been distributed across the country. The vaccines were donated by the Chinese and Indian governments; 80, 000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from India arrived on March 07 and 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccines from China arrived on March 03.

The Health Minister reiterated that it is not mandatory to take the jab and noted that frontline healthcare workers, who are being vaccinated first, will not be penalised for not taking the vaccine.

For persons 60 years and over, they can visit health centres or immunization centres in their area and present their national identification card before being administered the vaccine.

Before the end of the month, Guyana will receive thousands of doses more of vaccines through the COVAX facility and the CARICOM/ African Union agreement.

The country began its COVID immunization on February 11 with a donation of 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados. These vaccines are to be administered in two doses per individual.