Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony was last evening grilled by this publication on when and if he and his colleagues in the cabinet will be taking their shots of the Coronavirus Vaccine.
The minister was asked the question given the reservation of some citizens to even consider accepting the vaccines which have arrived from China as a gift to the Guyanese people.
On Tuesday evening ten thousand vaccines arrived in Guyana on board a flight from Toronto having been shopped from China.
The Health Minister was asked if, in a show of public confidence in the vaccine, he and his cabinet colleagues intend to take it to prove to the population that the dosage is safe for them to take.
“Once we are able to take care of that category of people (front line workers, elderly, and teachers) then we can have ours and that has been the position of the president and all of us agree to that. So we will take it but we will take it at the right time, I think the real frontline workers have to get it first” Minister Anthony said in response to a question from BIG Smith News Watch.
He said that none of his cabinet colleagues have a problem in taking the vaccine publicly and at the right time ‘I will do that”.
According to the senior health official, when the first sets of vaccines arrived in Guyana last month from Barbados, he was asked the same question about taking the vaccine but the reality is, according to him, he interacts with people but he is not at that frontline position where he interacts with someone who may be known to have the virus. It is against that backdrop that he advocates the frontline workers and those most at risk be given the vaccines first.
Frontline workers, the elderly, and teachers are among those who are in line to be given the vaccines from this batch which has arrived in Guyana on Tuesday night.
Minister Anthony said they will be working with the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security along with the Ministry of Education to find the best possible way of rolling out the vaccines to those targeted.