Linden vaccination rollout heightened as 119 get ‘jabs’

The roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccines in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) has begun increasing with 119 individuals receiving the first jab of one of the COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday, according to the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony.

On Monday, during his COVID-19 update, the Health Minister highlighted that there was a cabinet outreach in the mining town of Linden on Sunday.

“The Cabinet had an outreach in Linden because we recognised that we haven’t been seeing many persons coming forward for their vaccination,” the Health Minister highlighted.

According to him, while many of the other administrative regions have recorded a 30 per cent first-dose vaccination coverage, Region 10 has been lagging behind with vaccination coverage of about only 8.6 per cent.

And as such, the local authorities felt it was necessary to engage people in the community on the vaccination rollout while there were a number of vaccination sites offering the vaccines on Sunday.

The Health Minister, alongside the Senior Minister within the Office of the Presidency with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh; Minister of Amerindian Affairs, Pauline Sukhai; Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd; Minister within the Ministry of Local Government, Anand Persaud, and regional authorities fanned out across Linden on Sunday.

“We ended up at the end of [Sunday] with 119 persons taking their first dose and I think that is a positive step,” Dr Anthony said, explaining that this figure is the highest daily total for the region.

He also noted that there will be ongoing engagement with Region 10 and all other regions to ensure that the concerns people might have can be addressed.

“As a government, we all want to encourage everyone to take their vaccines and if we are to get to herd immunity, it would mean that most of the adult population would have to get the vaccine,” he said.

Vaccination for COVID-19 is not mandatory in Guyana but the local authorities have been encouraging people to get vaccinated so that they can protect themselves from the severe symptoms associated with the COVID-19 disease.

Meanwhile, the Health Minister also noted that at the end of Sunday, a total of 142,869 people received their first of two COVID-19 jabs; a total of 5,035 people received their first and second doses.