Health Minister urges Cancer patients to get vaccinated against COVID-19

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, said persons with underlying illnesses like cancer are at a
higher risk of contracting the severe form of the COVID-19 disease, and is again urging such
persons to get vaccinated.
“Despite having cancer, you need to go get vaccinated…the only thing perhaps you need to
reconsider, is if your physician or the doctor that is treating you expressively say that you should
not get the vaccine,” Minister Anthony said. Dr. Anthony pointed out that a booster dose is also
recommended to better protect such persons. “In some cases, if persons’ immune systems are
depressed, most of the recommendations are not just for the two doses, but an additional
dose,” he said.
The minister pointed out that Friday February 4 th marks the 22nd anniversary of World Cancer
Day, which he said is observed under the theme “Close the Care Gap”, which seeks to raise
awareness on cancer prevention and working to ensure there is early detection and treatment for
the disease.
Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony said there has been a significant drop in active COVID-19 cases across
the country, this, he stressed is due to the shorter duration of the Omicron variant, which is
suspected to be circulating in Guyana.
“So right now, we have 5, 806 active cases across Guyana and this represents a drop, so if we
look at what we had a week ago we were about 13, 000 active cases so this is a very significant
drop,” Minister Anthony said.