Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Thursday announced that pregnant and lactating women would be allowed to choose which COVID-19 vaccines they would like to be administered to them.
Anthony made the announcement during his daily COVID-19 update, where he was asked whether pregnant and lactating women will only be able to receive the Pfizer vaccine, which was initially to be issued to that section of the population.
He noted requests had been made by citizens to have the Pfizer vaccine, which was at first solely being used to inoculate children ages 12 to 17, to be opened to pregnant women. “…that is why initially when we opened up the vaccination [using] Pfizer, when we moved from just the children from 12 to 17, the next group of people we offered it to was pregnant women,” he said.
In early October, Anthony had announced that the administration of the Pfizer vaccine was extended to cover pregnant and breastfeeding mothers, just before 100,000 more doses of the vaccine arrived in Guyana. However, during Thursday’s update he noted that while this jab was extended at that time to cover that section of the population, it does not mean that they can only take that vaccine. Dr Anthony stated, “If they have a choice or a preference of getting another vaccine, they can ask when they go to the vaccination site.”
