In an effort to get more young people vaccinated against COVID-19, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony is urging sport clubs and organisations to promote the vaccination campaign among their members.
The government has been on an intense drive to get Guyanese vaccinated against the virus, and the minister said clubs that engage young people have a major role to play in this effort.
Speaking on his daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday, the minister said: “In Guyana we’ve had cases where young people with comorbidities have died from COVID. So the best way to protect yourself is really to get vaccinated.”
“And again we want to urge persons who work with young people, have some influence over young people to really talk to them about getting vaccinated.”
The former Sport Minister indicated that the various sport clubs countrywide “should run vaccination campaigns to make sure their members are fully vaccinated.”
“Activities where young people are gathering we need to get those persons who are coordinating those activities to ensure that the young people are getting vaccinated.”
The Guyana Football Federation, for example, has been actively engaging its affiliates and stakeholders to get vaccinated ahead of the year-end football extravaganza, which is being held in partnership with the Kashif and Shanghai Organisation.
The Ministry of Health recently announced that persons 18 and over are now eligible for booster shots.
Dr Anthony reminded: “We keep emphasising the point that if you only get one dose of the vaccine, it is not going to give you full protection.”
For the adult population, the first dose vaccination rate is at 78.8 per cent, while the second dose is at 55.3 per cent.
For the 12 to 18 population, the first dose is at 40.5 per cent and the second dose at 28.4 per cent.
So far, 3189 persons have received their booster dose.
“We really need to do a lot more work here, parents can help us, teachers, other influential persons in the community, they need to help us to talk to young people in these communities to make sure they get vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony stressed.
He assured that there are enough vaccines in the country for persons to be immunised.
