Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has announced that rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for children will begin today at St Stanislaus College, Georgetown.
“We’ll have an initial programme at St Stanislaus College tomorrow, where we’ll do a sensitisation session and then we’ll do some vaccination for students who would like to get vaccinated from Saints,” he said on Wednesday during his daily COVID-19 update.
“But if there are any other persons from around the community who are interested in getting their vaccines tomorrow, they can come,” the Minister has said.
He said that, at today’s event, officials would announce other places where the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines would be available.
According to the Health Minister, the vaccines will be available directly at schools and at some existing COVID-19 vaccination sites.
Guyana on Tuesday received 146,250 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which arrived at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA), Timehri. Donated by the United States Government, these vaccines will be offered to children between the ages of 12 and 18, and are a crucial component in the reopening of schools, which is scheduled for September 6.
The Education Ministry had sent consent forms to parents and guardians to give permission for their children to receive the vaccine.
To date, over 4000 students have been granted consent to receive the vaccine, and this number is expected to increase significantly in the coming days.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95%.
Pfizer’s two-dose COVID-19 vaccine has now received full approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) – the first jab to be licensed in the US.
The vaccine had initially been given emergency use authorisation. Its two jabs three weeks apart are now fully approved for those aged 16 and older, but it still has emergency use authorisation for children aged 12 to 15.
Parental consent forms for this vaccine have been delivered to schools, and can be downloaded from the Ministry’s website at: https://education.gov.gy/covid-vaccine. Parents can also fill an e-form which can be submitted to indicate their consent.
This can be accessed at: https://education.gov.gy/PfizerRegistration. Also, if parents are unable to submit the physical copies, they can take a photograph of the completed form and submit it via WhatsApp to telephone number: 652-9144.
