Georgetown: Several frontline workers at the GPHC and the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit at the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara received the Oxford- AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Guyana received its first donation of some 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from Barbados. This will be administered to some 1,400 frontline health workers who are required to take two doses of the vaccines; the second is given four to 12 weeks after the first. The CARICOM Secretariat will use 200 doses to vaccinate 100 persons.
On Thursday Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony was at the Georgetown Public Hospital where the first set of frontline workers are receiving their first dose of the Astra Zeneca Oxford vaccine. Pharmacist Brinnet Bernarai is the first person to receive the vaccine in Guyana.
The Minister is encouraging the public to comply with instructions given by medical teams, village and community leaders as they implement measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
Minister Anthony said despite Covid spikes in some areas, persons continue to resist precautionary measures, jeopardising the public’s health.
Meanwhile, monitoring is ongoing in Waramadong, Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven) as the village has 47 active cases.
“So far, everybody we identified in that area has had a very mild form of the disease and we didn’t have anyone who needed hospitalisation or anything of the sort. So basically, it’s just to isolate them, monitor them, but if persons require additional medical attention, they would have to be sent out,” Dr. Anthony said.
Waramadong’s community centre is being used as an isolation facility along with one of the four dormitories of the Waramadong Secondary School, which is being utilised as an isolation centre for Covid positive students.
Minister Anthony said medical teams in the area have been working along with this and other communities in the Upper Mazaruni to curb transmission of the disease. While some communities have been resistant to the engagement, others have been very cooperative. Talks with the villages are ongoing.
“We hope that the village leaders and so forth would reconsider because we are doing this to ensure the safety of the residents there. We need to determine is there are active cases in the communities and if there are, we have to get them to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease,” the Health Minister said. As part of their efforts to combat the disease in the Region, the teams have conducted sensitisation exercises where they educated residents on the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and the safety measures to keep safe.
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