An estimated 2,000 children, ages 12 -17, received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 jab during a vaccination drive at MovieTowne yesterday in what has been seen as a major boost for the government’s back-to-school drive.
The event was scheduled to begin at 9 am and end at 4 pm but with cars lining up early, inoculations started before 8 am and continued right up to 5.45 pm and even then persons had to be turned away.
Extra staff had to be called out by the ministries of health and education and some teachers also volunteered with paperwork. Around 70,000 children are being targeted for inoculation utilizing a donation by the US government of 146, 250 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Those who turned up to be inoculated using the drive-through site, had to wait in line around two hours before it could be their child’s turn. The drive-through saw the queue of vehicles stretching all the way to the University of Guyana Road and subsequently the Railway Embankment Road.
Initially when the vaccination drive began minutes to 8 yesterday morning there were only two vaccination sites at MovieTowne, the drive-through and the walk-in, which had four and five vaccination sections respectively. However, by lunch the turnout required all hands on deck so two of the MoH’s buses were brought on site to create two additional walk-in vaccination sites.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony who was present to oversee the process found himself gloving up and inoculating some of the adolescents who came in. A number of teachers present also assisted with paperwork so that health officials could have a meal.
Minister of Education, Priya Manickchand who spoke with this newspaper yesterday afternoon said that the response by parents has been an excellent one, much better than they had anticipated. “It has been an overwhelming response. Both the Minis-try of Education and the Ministry of Health have called out for more staff and we are assembling about twenty more persons… I’m very, very pleased with the turnout. It says to us that people want these vaccines and while there are persons, some with genuine concerns and some misguided, I think it’s our duty to make sure every child who wants this vaccine gets it and every parent who has concerns, that we answer them earnestly…” Manickchand said.
The minister added that as the children were being vaccinated, their staffers were documenting which schools the children attend. Parents or guardians were required to take along their children’s birth certificates or some other form of identification. Parents were also required to provide their identification.
While the drive catered for adolescents, the event also saw some parents receiving their first shot of the adult vaccines that were available at the site. It was pointed out that the majority of the parents were inoculated against the virus but for some, the vaccination drive for the children provided encouragement for them to also get vaccinated. Adults who were vaccinated yesterday according to Anthony, had the options of being inoculated with the AstraZeneca or the Sputnik or Sinopharm vaccines.
“We will certainly be having another vaccination drive at the National Stadium and we’ll also be doing some regional drive-throughs. The staff in these regions will be manning some of these drives. It’s an exercise to have as many of the children vaccinated as soon as possible. Our preference will be the kids but if their parents want to be vaccinated, then we’ll have the vaccines available to them also. More than likely, we’ll be doing another one of these vaccination drives. We will be going to the schools during the week but (are) also looking at the possibility of another (vaccination drive) during the course of the week,” Anthony said.
Huge
The minister said that it was suspected that there would be a fairly large turnout at yesterday’s drive but pointed out that they never suspected it would be as huge. He noted that he saw persons arriving from as far as Region Six as well as those from regions 3, 4, and 5. He enthused that in some cases it seemed like a family outing as the entire family accompanied the child.
Some families had two or more children receiving the jab. For the drive through, children remained in the vehicles while their parents presented health officials with the necessary documents before continuing slowly along where they would stop again at another group with a doctor or nurse where the child would be inoculated. Parents then drove to the parking lot where they remained with their children for a fifteen-minute observation period to ensure that there were no negative effects from the vaccine.
One parent, Shadeer Hassan who was waiting in the parking lot with his children shared that his 14-year-old son, a student at West Demerara Secondary School, Region Three had some minutes before received his vaccine. Hassan who prior to yesterday received his first dose of the Sputnik vaccine said he was worried at first like many parents but has been following the news and has seen children being inoculated. The father said if the world should return to some normalcy, this is the way to do it. While the vaccination card he received didn’t show a date for his son to return for his second dose, Hassan said that he was told that if he wants to have his son fully vaccinated, then he can do so in 21 days’ time when the teen will be eligible for the second dose.
Also waiting as part of the observation process was a tenth grader President College’s student accompanied by his adult brother, Charles Derichand. Derichand pointed out that he joined the drive-through line at UG Road and two hours later his brother received the Pfizer vaccine. The man who is also vaccinated said it was a long wait but it was worth it if it meant that his younger brother could be safer should he contract COVID at any point.
Both the Minister of Health and the Minister of Education had during their remarks commended all those who volunteered in making the vaccination drive a success. The Rotary Club of Demerara was one of these organisations that came onboard and volunteered their service.
Assist
Former president of the Rotary Club of Demerara, Patrick De Groot noted that the club tries to assist the government in anything that they are doing. “As Rotarians, we realize the importance of the vaccination and especially for the kids who will be starting school on September 6th, they need to be vaccinated. We are willing to help however we could,” said De Groot.
The club was assigned to the walk-in sites. Asked whether parents were inquisitive about the Pfizer vaccine, he replied that parents who showed up at the site seemed well-informed. “We also brought some of our rotary doctors and they are helping with the vaccinations too… This has been a real good [collaboration] by the two ministries,” commented De Groot of the vaccination drive.
Not many people had concerns regarding the virus. Manickchand said six persons came to her regarding health concerns and she referred them to the doctors at the site. The six persons she said were subsequently vaccinated after their concerns were addressed by the doctors.
One of these doctors was Dr. Ariane Mangar, Director for Rehabilitation Services with the Ministry of Health. She shared that there weren’t too many concerns from parents as the majority had already made up their minds about their children receiving the vaccines before arriving at the site.
She pointed out that before the children are inoculated, a health official would go through a checklist with them and their parent, to enquire about any underlying health conditions. “We ask whether the child is sick today. We look for allergies, we look for diabetes… So far so good; we haven’t have to turn away anyone including the disabled children who came,” said the doctor.
By 4 pm yesterday when the exercise should have been concluded, there were still hundreds of children in lines waiting to be vaccinated. The ministries utilized the help of the Guyana Police Force which joined the end of the drive-through line and advised other persons that they could not any longer join the queue. A GPF rank was also stationed at the mall’s entrance to prevent persons from joining the lines to the walk-in sites. The vaccination drive concluded around 5:45 pm.
The KFC franchise and ANSA McAL provided the vaccinated children with a Kid’s Meal and Smalta beverages.
The Ministry of Education on Friday announced that nursery and primary schools will reopen for face-to-face learning on September 6, while secondary schools will open in accordance with the vaccination programme which was launched on Thursday.
At the nursery level, 41 of the 348 nursery schools will open to full face-to-face interaction while the others will operate on a rotation system, which will see year one and two learners attending school on different days during the week.
At the Primary level, 44 schools will open completely on September 6, while another 413 including nine annexes will operate on a rotational basis.
