GEORGETOWN (CMC):
The Guyana government on Monday said that it has fully vaccinated more than half of the country’s adult population against the COVID-19 pandemic as the country registered more deaths and infections linked to the virus since March last year.
The latest figures released here showed that as of Monday, the Ministry of Health recorded 391,521 adults, 18 years and older, taking the first dose of a COVID vaccine, representing 76.3 percent of that population.
An estimated 261,811 adults, or 51 percent of that population, have already returned for the second dose of the vaccine. For persons 12 to 17 years, the ministry said 28,345 or 38.9 percent were vaccinated with the first dose, while 19,536 or 26.8 percent received the second shot.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony, speaking at the daily COVID-19 Update, said while the milestone in the vaccination campaign can be applauded, some regions are still lagging.
He said 51 percent overall was reached because of the high vaccination rate in Region Four, where more than half of the population there had been fully inoculated.
“So we are 43.2 percent in Region One; Region Two, 41.6 percent; for Region Three, 48.9 percent; Region Four, 58.5 percent; Region Five, 51.9 percent; Region Six 49.8 percent; Region Seven, 46.9 percent; Region Eight, 34.8 percent; Region Nine at 53.4 percent; and Region Ten at 22.3 percent. So these are persons 18 years and over who would have received both doses of the vaccines.”
Anthony said that with the vaccination numbers progressively increasing, people are still flouting the COVID-19 guidelines, adding to the number of positive cases, with the Ministry of Health announcing that over the past 24 hours, there had been 55 new cases, raising the current active cases to 2,412.
“Thirty-two persons are now at the Ocean View Hospital, with 15 of them in the ICU. The others are in different regional hospitals,” the health minister said.
Guyana has registered 959 deaths and 36,817 positive cases linked to the virus since March last year.