A week into its adolescent vaccination campaign, and the Health Ministry has already administered some 6,052 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Rollout began in Region Four last week and was later taken to Regions Three and Nine. Vaccination teams are currently in Region Six today at the Corentyne Comprehensive School, Berbice High School, and the Skeldon Line Path Secondary.
Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony said today that the programme is going well, with 1,658 doses of the vaccine administered in Regions Three and Nine yesterday. He explained that uptake is slated to increase after the first two weeks of the programme.
“So, for the first weeks, it is about doing both vaccinations and it’s a learning process for the staff within the regions because we had staff that went up centrally to train and as well as supervise the vaccination. So, a lot of the staff now being trained can be able to roll out that independently. So, we’ll see much more uptake as the weeks go by,” he said.
The Minister is calling on parents to ensure that their children between the ages of 12 and 18 are vaccinated.
Guyana Standard understands that adolescents, who take the first dose, are required to return 21 days later to receive a second jab.
“So far, a lot of parents have been bringing their children out to get vaccinated and I think that’s a good thing. I want to encourage more parents to do that because we want to vaccinate children so that they can return to school safely. So this is the first dose and 21 days later, they would be getting their second dose and about a week, thereafter, you should be fully immunised, which means you can be protected and go back to school,” he said.
