Guyana receives another 38,000 doses of AstraZeneca from COVAX

Guyana on Monday received another 38,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX Facility, a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organization/World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).

The consignment of AstraZeneca is the second to arrive in Guyana from COVAX.

On March 29, the first shipment of 24,000 doses of the vaccine arrived. This means that Guyana has now received a total of 64,400 doses of the vaccines from COVAX.

The vaccines arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport and was received by Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Hugh Todd on behalf of the Government of Guyana.

The vaccines were shipped by PAHO’s Revolving Fund, which is responsible for the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines for the countries of the Americas under the COVAX Facility

With more vaccines expected to arrive successively during 2021, Guyana is expected to continue receiving doses through May until it reaches 100,800, the amount specified by COVAX.

Guyana is one of ten countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are receiving vaccines at no cost through the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Guyana is the first AMC country in the Caribbean to receive the vaccines through COVAX.

COVAX seeks to provide vaccines for at least 20% of the population of each participating country during 2021. In this first round of vaccine allocation, all COVAX participating countries will receive doses to vaccinate between 2.2 and 2.6% of their population.

Guyana had also received doses of the AstraZeneca from India and also currently has the Sinopharm and Sputnik V vaccines which are also being administered simultaneously.