Guyana purchases 200,000 doses of Sputnik-V vaccine for US$4M

– to also get 24000 doses of AstraZeneca from COVAX

As the Government of Guyana continues to explore avenues to access COVID-19 vaccines, President Irfaan Ali on Friday disclosed that the country is buying some 200,000 doses of the Russian manufactured Sputnik V vaccines to the tune of a whopping US$4 million.
“We have been able to secure the purchase of 200,000 of the Component One of the Sputnik V vaccine… and 200,000 of the Component Two… Through the UAE (United Arab Emirates), we’ve been able to secure these 200,000 vaccines. Right now, they’re finalising the logics to bring that 200,000 in…,” the Head of State told reporters on the sidelines of an event at State House on Friday.
President Ali explained that Guyana is paying US$20 per dose for the Russian vaccine, amounting to some US$4 million for this batch of the Component 1 dose alone.
According to the President, Government cannot put a price tag on the health of the citizenry.
“It’s very expensive but it is an expense that we can’t spare. The health of the population is very critical. This will call for some adjustments in the budget and so on, but, as I said we are not sparing any expenses on this. We are working on making the resources available to ensure every single Guyanese are vaccinated,” the Guyanese leader asserted.
In addition to the 200,000 Sputnik doses, Guyana is also expecting its first tranche from the COVAX facility next week.
“We are now told by COVAX that we should get 24,000 AstraZeneca on Monday from the COVAX mechanism,” he revealed.
Initially, Guyana was slated to receive 100,800 vaccines in its first collection from COVAX – a body of organisations including the World Health Organisation (WHO) that was established to ensure there is equal access to and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. However, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony disclosed on Monday that COVAX has significantly reduced that figure to now 24,000 doses for several countries in the region including Guyana.
However, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has said that the remainder of the initial 100,000-plus vaccines will arrive here in May.
Unlike the massive bill for the Sputnik jabs, the COVAX batch will be given to Guyana free of cost.
With these 224,000 COVID-19 vaccines expecting to arrive in days, they will be used to roll out the expanded vaccination campaign to persons 40 years and over.
President Ali further told reporters on Friday that the Government has already established a supply chain and storage facility in anticipation of the arrival of these vaccines next week. In fact, Government has also engaged the Private Sector to add to its current storage capacity.
“Once the scheduling which we have, that is, the 24,000 and the first set of the 200,000 coming by Monday/Tuesday, we’ll be able to roll out early next week – by Wednesday definitely – the 40 and above in a massive way,” he posited.
To date, Guyana has received a total of 103,000 doses of vaccines as donations from allies. Of these, 3000 doses of AstraZeneca were from Barbados and another 80,000 doses of the same jab were from India. China also donated 20,000 of its locally manufactured Sinopharm vaccines.
The vaccination campaign started with frontline health workers and then extended to persons 60 years and over. Over 25,000 persons in Guyana have been vaccinated to date. However, with Government aiming to vaccinate 10,000 persons daily, additional vaccines will be needed.
As such, President Ali posited that Government is working aggressively to secure more COVID-19 jabs so that the country can achieve herd immunity.
However, he disclosed that apart from the batches coming in next week, Guyana has been told by major manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna that it cannot access the jabs until next year.
“We have explored the Pfizer vaccines. We had great discussions with the company directly and then we were told that this could only be available in 2022. Same with the Moderna… The production lines are being stressed globally,” he related.
Earlier this week, the President said they also reached out to the manufacturers of AstraZeneca in India but hit a stumbling block there as well. However, he had indicated that Guyana is looking at another India-manufactured COVID-19 jab – COVAXIN, which was the vaccine taken by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
It was reported that Guyana is looking to obtain some 400,000 doses of the COVAXIN, which has an 81 per cent efficacy.
However, during a recent interview with <<<Guyana Times>>>, Indian High Commissioner Dr KJ Srinivasa explained that discussions are ongoing for a tranche of 100,000 doses of this jab.
“We have put the Health Ministry in touch with the producers of COVAXIN, Bharat Biotech… As I understand now, Guyana is actually going through its internal processes of approving the proposal by Bharrat Biotech and once they give the go-ahead, Bharrat Biotech will go through the formalities on the Indian side because they also have to take permission from the various regulators before they export the vaccine,” the Indian diplomat told this newspaper.
In the meanwhile, President Ali on Friday reassured that his Government will spare no expense in ensuring that its citizens are protected against the novel coronavirus. But in the same breath, he implored citizens to continues to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines especially after getting vaccinated.
“A lot of people think that after they’re vaccinated, you can take off the mask and walk around the place. But you can still be infected and you can pass that on… Together we have to get through this. You have my personal commitment and the commitment of the Government in doing what we can do scientifically and medically. But you have individual responsibility too and I’m asking you in the interest of family, your neighbours, your community to exercise your individual responsibility in a disciplined manner,” the Head of State urged.

https://guyanatimesgy.com/guya...-sputnik-5-vaccines/