Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, says there are stringent management and accountability of the Russian Sputnik V, given that the vaccines must be stored at minus 18 or minus 20 degrees Celsius to maintain its 92 per cent efficacy.
Dr Anthony, during his daily COVID-19 briefing on Tuesday, emphasised that the vaccines are frozen and then thawed before it is administered.
“If you thaw out the vaccine and you didn’t use it and try to put it back that is not acceptable, you will have to throw it away,” Dr Anthony said.
Guyana is expecting another batch of the Russian jab on Thursday. An additional 30,000 doses of vaccines arrived here on Monday; in early April, Guyana received the first 25,000 doses after purchasing some 200,000 doses at a total cost of US$4M.
The additional vaccine doses will significantly boost the country’s vaccination programme. Dr Anthony further noted that health workers are also becoming more proficient in the use of the vaccine and, as such, vaccines have been deployed to Regions Four, Six and Ten. These regions, the Health Minister revealed, are the only regions that additional cold storage was created to cater for the Sputnik vaccine. He noted that Region Two’s cold storage is nearing completion.
“This is different from the usual thing…we now have to store at minus 20 so we had to make some adjustments to be able to do that,” Dr Anthony said.
To date, 63, 740 persons have received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Guyana is currently administering the AstraZeneca, Sputnik and Sinopharm vaccines to frontline health workers and persons 40-years and older.
‘Our vaccination programme has been going quite well,” Dr Anthony said as he also noted the good response for persons to receive their vaccine. The vaccination programme is also being boosted with the assistance of a number of organisations who are mobilising and bringing persons out to be vaccinated.
Meanwhile, COVAX, during a meeting with Caribbean Health Ministers on Monday, revealed that the region should expect additional vaccines before May 2021.
“There wasn’t a definitive date but we should be getting additional sets of vaccine before May from COVAX. How much, we don’t know as yet, and when, we don’t know as yet,” Dr Anthony said.
During his address at the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Special Segment on Financing for Recovery from COVID-19 on Monday, Guyana’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ashni Singh said developing countries and vulnerable states should have adequate and affordable access to COVID-19 vaccines.
Below is a list of fixed vaccination sites across the country;
The fixed sites for COVID-19 vaccination are:
Region 1
Mabaruma Regional Hospital
Port Kaituma District Hospital
Matthew’s Ridge Hospital
Waramuri Health Centre
Manawarin Health Centre
Kumaka District Hospital
Kwebanna Health Centre
Region 2
Suddie Regional Hospital
Charity Hospital
Anna Regina Health Centre
Supernaam Health Centre
Hust Diren Health Centre
Queenstown Health Centre
Oscar Joseph Hospital
Region 3
Parika Health Centre
Goed Intent Health Centre
Versailles Health Centre
Den Amstel Health Centre
West Demerara Hospital
Region 4
Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC )
Enmore Polyclinic
Diamond Diagnostic Centre
Vaccination Centre (Brickdam)
Unity Health Centre
Clonbrook Health Centre
Herstelling Health Centre
Melanie Health Centre
BV Health Centre
Lusignan Health Centre
Eccles Health Centre
Soesdyke Health Centre
Private Hospitals
Davis Memorial Hospital
St. Joseph Mercy Hospital
Woodlands Hospital
Region 5
Fort Wellington District Hospital
Bushlot Health Centre
Mahicony Health Centre
High Dam Health Centre
Rosignol Health Centre
Region 6
New Amsterdam Hospital
Skeldon Hospital
No. 47 Village Health Centre
Port Mourant Health Centre
Bothers Health Centre
Region 7
Bartica Health Centre
Region 8
Mahdia Hospital
Kato (Rovering Team)
Region 9
Lethem Hospital
Annai Health Centre
Aishalton Hospital
Sandcreek Health Centre
Region 10
Linden Hospital
Kwakwani Health Centre
One Mile Health Centre
Amelia’s Ward Health Centre
