GUYANA, through its Government Analyst Food and Drug Department (GA-FDD), has granted Emergency Use Authorisation to the Russian Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, both of which are expected in Guyana sometime this year.

Responding to questions asked by this newspaper during his COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony highlighted that the government has been engaging the Russian manufacturer for a number of weeks. Previously, it was announced that the Government of China would donate 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Guyana.

“One of the things that vaccine makers like to see is that the country where the vaccines are going to is that the country has granted permission for the vaccine to be used,” the minister said, alluding to the rationale behind granting the emergency-use authorisation of the vaccines.

This local emergency authorisation, the minister explained, is granted if: the vaccine has been approved by a stringent regulatory authority; if it has been approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and/or if it has been used by the South American and Caribbean countries.

The Sputnik V vaccine has been rolled out in Brazil and Argentina thus far, and has been submitted to the WHO for Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA). Clinical trials have found that the Sputnik V vaccine has an efficacy of about 92 per cent, while the Sinopharm vaccine has an efficacy of 79.4 per cent. These two vaccines, once secured by Guyana, would add to the ongoing rollout of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine across Guyana. The efficacy of this vaccine, which is currently being administered to frontline health workers, has reached about 82.4 per cent once the second dose is administered after about eight to 12 weeks.

Dr. Anthony was unable to provide details on how many doses of the Sputnik V vaccine Guyana would receive, since arrangements are still being finalised. So far, Guyana has vaccinated about 2,000 of its frontline health care workers.

At a recent virtual forum, Chairman of the Pan-American Health Organisation (PAHO) Regional Immunisation Technical Advisory Group, Professor Peter Figueroa, highlighted that the vaccination ongoing in other parts of the world has contributed to a decrease in the number of cases and deaths.

At that forum, also, Professor of Molecular Genetics and Virology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Christine Carrington explained that all of the COVID-19 vaccines are still quite effective, even though they have varying efficacies.

Professor Carrington explained that the varying efficacies of the vaccines — whether it is the Pfizer, Moderna, Oxford-Astrazeneca or otherwise — were created with slightly different formulations and therefore, they work in slightly different ways. Since they work in slightly different ways, she said that they would elicit slightly different immune responses.