COVID-19: Over 5,000 vaccinated in one day

Guyana set a record on Wednesday by administering 5, 240 COVID-19 jabs in one day, according to the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, who revealed that the total includes children and adults who received first and second doses.

As it relates to children, the vaccination drive at Queen’s College also saw the highest number of children being vaccinated within a day. Dr Anthony during his daily COVID-19 update on Thursday said over 900 children received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

He said the countrywide vaccination campaign has been doing well over the last couple of days.  In giving a breakdown of the vaccines administered on Wednesday, Dr Anthony said 2, 595 received their second dose; 1, 694 received their first dose and 951 were given to children between the ages of 12 and 18.

“I would say that is a record high for us and I do hope that this trend continues,” Dr Anthony said.

Guyana is in a third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and is seeing an increase in positive infections and deaths. Since March 2020, 25, 770 persons tested positive for COVID-19 and 624 have died.

Dr Anthony continues to encourage citizens to get vaccinated; he noted that the government took a policy decision to administer the Pfizer vaccine only to children, while adults can receive Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Sputnik V and the Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

To date, 61.8 per cent of the adult population received their first dose vaccine, while 32.2 per cent received their second dose.  As it relates to vaccination in children, 4, 362 received their first dose.