‘The faster you can get vaccinated, the faster ‘COVID’ deaths can be prevented’ – Dr Anthony

Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has been drastically increasing, with this month already recording 75 deaths, and in response to the climbing death toll, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, said that the faster more people can get vaccinated, the faster these deaths can be prevented.

Responding to a question from the News Room during his daily COVID-19 update on Thursday, the Health Minister emphasised that “vaccination prevents deaths.”

As he noted in previous updates, if an individual receives a COVID-19 vaccine, that individual would be immunised against the deadly disease. He explained that once immunized, the individual would not die if infected with COVID-19 and, the individual is also less likely to even become infected.

“If you have more people getting vaccinated, it would mean that we would reduce the burden of the COVID-19 infection in Guyana and that is the reason why we have been saying and we have been working to achieve herd immunity,” the Health Minister said.

Herd immunity, he explained, describes a population where a significant number of people are immunised against the disease. SARS-CoV-2 is the novel coronavirus that causes people to become infected with the disease, COVID-19.

“Vaccination prevents deaths, so the more people that get vaccinated, then the faster you can prevent the deaths that are currently occurring,” the Health Minister said.

Overall, Guyana has recorded 374 confirmed COVID-19 deaths. The first death was recorded on March 11, 2020. However, since March 4, 2021, there have been 174 deaths, signalling a significant increase in the death toll over a shorter period of time.

Meanwhile, Guyana started its COVID-19 vaccination rollout on February 11, 2021. On Thursday, the Health Minister highlighted that 191,151 people had already received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines.

Additionally, 62,610 people have received both their first and second doses of the vaccines. Two weeks after an individual receives their second dose, they are considered fully vaccinated.