As schools reopen, Gov’t working to increase adolescent COVID-19 vaccination

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, disclosed that government is still pursuing the full vaccination of its adolescent population, more so, with the reopening of school. Dr. Anthony said that since the roll out of the intense immunisation programme for the 12-17 age group, his ministry has seen some 47.4 percent of this age cohort taking the first dose of the vaccine, and 34.7 percent are fully vaccinated.

“We have seen a slowdown in the 12 to 17 age group, and we think it can be attributed to a number of factors which include parents not giving permission, not having ready access to children and so forth,” Minister Anthony said. He continued, “There is an opportunity with school now opened that we’ll be able to reach a lot more children. We’ll be able to provide them with letters that they can take to their parents to get permission, and hopefully that permission will be granted and we’ll be able to administer the vaccine to these children.”

Dr. Anthony stressed the importance of getting children vaccinated against the deadly disease. He expressed optimism that parents will allow their children to get vaccinated as it is essential to keeping them safe. “I think it’s important that they get their vaccination, it protects them and hopefully we’ll get more compliance over the next couple of weeks,” Dr. Anthony noted. 

The health minister pointed out that there has been an emergence of two new variants of Omicron called BA4 and BA5. He said that these variants, are being monitored closely as it is suspected to cause surges in South Africa. “They’re seeing more cases, and they think it’s more infectious than the previous subvariants and people are going into the hospitals…so we have to monitor and see what will be the outcome,” Dr. Anthony revealed.

The minister appealed to more persons to get vaccinated as he said that it is the only way to protect against the stronger variants of COVID-19. He added that of Tuesday, there are 122 active coronavirus cases across Guyana with one patient hospitalised and in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).