Georgetown: With the Ministry of Health recording some 1, 186 new COVID-19 infections within the last 24- hours, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony is reiterating the importance of full vaccination and adherence to the COVID-19 measures and guidelines.
Minister Anthony, during Thursday’s COVID-19 update said unvaccinated persons, with comorbidities are at a higher risk of being hospitalised and as such he urged persons to get vaccinated against the disease.
“We are getting far less hospitalisation now, but if you’re unvaccinated and you have comorbidities, then you’ll be at a higher risk of getting hospitalised if you get COVID.
So, again I would like to urge persons who have not been vaccinated as yet to make sure that they go out and get vaccinated. We have vaccines available at all our vaccination sites, so it’s not a difficult thing to get,” he said.
Dr. Anthony added that all workplaces need to put rules in place to ensure a safer environment for their employees.
He said those rules should include wearing a mask consistently, indoor work spaces need to be properly ventilated, employees need to maintain social distancing and they should get vaccinated.
“In many instances, people are not complying with these simple measures and therefore, we have to monitor for more compliance. I think that if workplaces do that, both public and private, then we would see a drop in cases.”
Meanwhile, in terms of testing for the Omicron variant, Minister Anthony said samples have already been selected and shipping arrangements are being sorted.
“We have selected the samples, we’re now at the process where the agencies are making the arrangements for the shipping, so as soon as those arrangements are concluded, we will be able to send the samples.”
Additionally, in terms of vaccination 416, 353 of the country’s adult population took the first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 302, 704 persons have been fully vaccinated.
Within the 12 to 17 age cohort 31, 437 children received the first dose of the US-made Pfizer vaccine while 22, 259 took both doses.
