COVID-19 recovery high among children

−  parents urged to remain vigilant

Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says while Guyana has not recorded serious ailments in children who tested positive for Covid as most of them are asymptomatic, they must still obey the precautionary measures.

The Minister said to date 537 children tested positive for the disease. the recovery rate in children is also very high, he said.

“We haven’t had any serious ailments with children, most of them were asymptomatic and they were monitored and basically, they have recovered,” Dr. Anthony said, in Wednesday’s COVID-19 update.

The children who contracted the disease would have had a frequency of exposure, he said, adding that the positive cases were discovered during contact tracing.

“The only reason why we have detected that children were positive was because when we go to do contact tracing in a household, where there might be children in the household, we test everybody in the household we believe would have been exposed to someone who was positive.”

The age group of those children who tested positive for the virus were from zero to fourteen years old.

“In terms of age categories, from zero to age five, 114 children tested positive, over the duration since the Ministry began testing for COVID-19. Ages five to nine, 176 children tested positive and ages 10 to 14, 247 children tested positive.”

Minister Anthony has again called on parents to remain vigilant and to remind their children, daily, to wash their hands, sanitise and wear masks in public to keep safe.

No COVID-19 vaccine has been developed for children.

“The Pfizer vaccine … and Moderna vaccine which were given the emergency use authorisation, cannot be used to immunise children. Pfizer has started clinical trials for children between the ages of five and twelve and, in another two months, they will be starting clinical trials for children between the ages of five and twelve.”

The World Health Organization (WHO), has advised against vaccinating children under 16 years old for Covid, as current vaccines for the disease have only been tested in children above that age.