Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Monday announced that during this week the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine will be made available to the general public.
He made the announcement during his daily COVID-19 update on Monday.
The vaccine was previously being used for the inoculation of adolescents aged 12 to 18, along with pregnant and breastfeeding mothers.
Guyana had received two donations of the Pfizer vaccines on separate occasions amounting to a total of 246,870 doses. The vaccine is a two-dose one which means that 123,435 persons would be able to be fully vaccinated from the supply.
“As of this week, we are going to open up the use of the Pfizer to anyone who would like to get the Pfizer vaccine,” Anthony announced although he did not provide a reason for amending the criteria to be eligible for the jab.
While he noted that anyone 12 years and above will be able to access the vaccine, he informed that once staff are trained to administer the shot to the younger age category and approval is given, it will be used.
To this end, Dr Anthony stated that the local authorities are anticipating United States Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 now that the US-FDA has cleared it for use in that age group.
“We have started some amount of training of our staff because this particular age group would require a vaccine that is one-third of the dose that we are giving and we have started that training and we are expecting that during this week we will complete that training,” he was quoted as saying.
Further the health minister stressed that once full emergency use authorisation is given in the United States, the local Food and Drug Administration will then be able to license the vaccine for emergency use in Guyana.
