Local health authorities are currently working on procuring vaccines for children in Guyana as final arrangements are being made for the arrival of the Johnson & Johnson and Sputnik V shots, according to Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony.
During his daily COVID-19 update on Thursday, Anthony stated that the government has been making preparations for vaccines for children.
“The two vaccines that have been approved for children between the ages of 18 [and] 12 years [are] basically the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, so we’re making efforts to get those and we expect that very shortly we will have those vaccines in Guyana,” Anthony informed.
He further noted that whenever those vaccines arrive, the Health Ministry will be working closely with the Ministry of Education to ensure that their rollout is successful. To this end he added, “It is a choice, but we hope that parents would understand that for children to return to school they should be in a safe environment and we will encourage them to make sure that their children get the vaccine.”
As it relates to the administration of vaccines to children, Anthony indicated that many countries have used the vaccines for their adult population as there is some amount of vaccine scarcity. The minister stated that in the United States, where there isn’t vaccine scarcity, it was recognised that having children vaccinated was important to keep the school system safe.
Further, he mentioned that with the new Delta variant, which has been spreading in over 100 countries, the infections have been occurring more in persons who are unvaccinated. “If children remain unvaccinated unfortunately they can get infected and when they get infected what we are seeing now is not a mild form of the disease in children but we’re also getting a more severe form of the disease in children,” he said.
Anthony warned that if Guyana is to stay ahead of the delta variant one thing that needs to be done is to have children immunised to protect them from the disease. While there has been no confirmation from the Ministry of Health as it relates to what variants are circulating in Guyana as no variant testing has been done recently, Dr Anthony posited that the population should operate as though all different variants are here and as such take the safety measures seriously.
Meanwhile, on the topic of the procurement of vaccines, the health Minister when asked about the arrival of more second-dose components for the Sputnik V shots which have been out, responded that the ministry is still working on getting those in
“We are working on that and by next week or so we hope to get another batch of second dose Sputnik V.” As it relates to the one-dose, Johnson & Johnson vaccines that are being procured through an arrangement with the African Union, Anthony noted that local authorities are awaiting a final date for the arrival of those vaccines. He added that they anticipate that by next week, they would have a set a timeline for their arrival.
