Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has explained that apart from children between the ages of 12 and 17, pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers will benefit from the Pfizer vaccines.
The Minister made the announcement during his daily COVID-19 update.
“Excepting if you’re pregnant or breast-feeding, we have not decided give to the adult population (the Pfizer vaccine). What we have decided or what we’re working on right now is to extend the beneficiaries from the 12 to 18 to now include persons who are pregnant and breastfeeding. So, the new vaccines that we’ll be getting will be going to that cohort of persons,” the Minister informed.
Guyana is currently expecting 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccines later this week through the COVAX initiative.
Dr Anthony also informed there are currently 14 pregnant women hospitalized with the COVID-19 virus – with 7 at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) and the other 7 at the Ocean View Facility.
He further added that it is expected that the Pfizer vaccines would be approved, by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), for children within the ages of 5 and 11 by November.
“We are expecting that in November that the US (United States) FDA (Food and Drug Association) would approve the Pfizer vaccines for the 11 to 5 and once that is done, we’ll be able to extend vaccination to that age group as well,” he stated.
So far, 25,180 or 34.5 per cent of children within the ages 12 to 17 have received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccines while 13,352 or 18.3 per cent would’ve received both doses.
