Rush for 1st, 2nd dose vaccines & boosters as COVID infects more 

The daily uptake in vaccination has jumped significantly in recent days even as the Ministry of Health continues to report record daily numbers of new positive COVID-19 cases locally.

On Monday alone, some 3, 325 persons turned up at vaccinations centres across the country to be inoculated against the deadly disease. It comes as another 438 people tested positive on Monday and a total of 6,006 persons are isolated at home.

Included in the total numbers of persons receiving vaccines on Monday, some 1,521 came for boosters.

Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony believes that boosters have become very important with the new variant and Guyana is now offering boosters five months after the last vaccine was administered.

“Booster shots are now widely recommended. Six months after your last shot immunity of persons starts to wean… but what they have found is that if between 5 – 6 months you are given a third dose then the immunity remains quite high,” Dr. Anthony said in his daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday.

It is on this note that Guyana has taken a decision to start administering booster shots five months after the last dose.

For those who have received two doses of AstraZeneca, Pfizer is recommended as a booster. Those with two doses of Sinopharm will get Sinopharm as a third dose. Those with the J and J vaccine (one-shot) will get another as a second (booster) shot.

And those who received two doses of the Sputnik V have options; they can receive as a third dose (booster) the J and J or the Pfizer.

The total vaccination numbers stand at 414, 932 persons who received a first dose (80.9% of the adult population); 301, 058 persons have received their second dose (58.7 %) and for children between 12 to 17 years old a total of 31, 203 have received the first dose while 22, 141 or 30.4 % of that age cohort have received a second dose.

The total number of persons to receive boosters to date stands at 18, 982 persons.