A total of 146,250 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Guyana yesterday and around 70,000 children are to be inoculated with it.
The vaccine which was recently given full regulatory approval by the United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA), arrived yesterday afternoon at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, Timehri and comes as a donation from Washington.
A release from the US Embassy here noted that the Pfizer vaccine is the only vaccine approved for use in children as young as 12 years old.
Meanwhile, during a press conference at the airport following the arrival of the doses, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony expressed gratitude to the government and people of the United States for the donation as schools are expected to reopen soon.
“This as we all know is a life-saving measure and while we were able to work with our adult population, what was missing was really working with our children,” he said. The minister added that as more variants have been discovered, it has been shown that children are now experiencing more severe forms of the infection. To this end, Anthony mentioned that since the beginning of the pandemic here, more than 4,000 children under the age of 18 have been infected.
Prior to the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine, the ministry had stated its intention to use the shot solely for the purpose of inoculating children as there are other vaccines here for the adult population.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand during the press conference stated that the vaccines will allow the country and the education system to resume some level of normalcy.
Manickchand stated, “Today we are very grateful to the United States Government and people, it is one that will help us to vaccinate all of our over 12 students which would amount to 98% of the secondary population in Guyana.”
She noted that if every parent and student were to consent to be vaccinated in that age group the country would be able to resume secondary school with normalcy and as such take back much of what the pandemic has taken from the country’s education system.
She noted that while they have received some consent forms already, the education ministry along with the health ministry will go to each village and school to ensure that all persons desirous of accessing the vaccine will benefit.
The Education Minister was asked what will happen to children whose parents do not consent for them to receive the vaccine. She noted that the government is not making the vaccination of children a precondition to enter schools, however, they are encouraging parents to give that consent.
“We don’t think school doors should ever be closed to anyone who wants to walk through them, but that’s a philosophy that’s good for when everything is perfect. We are not in a perfect place right now but we have not said and we are not prepared at this stage to say that unvaccinated children, if they want to access education will be disallowed from accessing education,” Manickchand told the press conference.
The minister revealed that just over 4,000 students have returned their consent forms to receive the vaccine. Manickchand said that she expects to see that number grow significantly as the vaccines have arrived.
