“Get vaccinated” – Health Minister urges teachers, eligible students

…Guyana to send samples to T&T to test for Omicron variant

The Health Ministry has selected 50 samples to send to the Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test whether the Omicron variant, a variant of the SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, is in Guyana.
But with no laboratory confirmation, health officials already suspect that the highly contagious variant is here in light of the recent surge in COVID-19 cases. Last Saturday, Guyana reported a single-day spike of 1016 COVID-19 cases. During Monday’s COVID-19 update, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said that the samples will be shipped out by the end of this week.

The results from the tests should be known within two to three weeks, the Health Minister added. According to Dr Anthony, the samples were collected after December 28, 2021, when it was noticed that cases were rapidly increasing.
The Health Minister also addressed concerns about the Deltacron variant – a variant that is said to be a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants. He explained that more studies have to be done to determine if the variant can cause severe illness.
As it is, he said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has a system of classifying variants. There are three levels of classification: variants that the WHO is monitoring, those under investigation, and those that are of concern.
In light of this, Dr Anthony noted, “Every day you will probably have mutations with the coronavirus but that does not mean that it is a new variant of concern. Once it gets to a level of being a variant of concern, then we pay more attention to them but right now what we have seen is that this variant has just been discovered and they are now trying to figure out what are its characteristics”.

“Get vaccinated”
With some schools reopened for face-to-face classes, the Health Minister appealed to teachers and eligible students to get vaccinated against the deadly virus. Minister Anthony pointed out that there is still a number of teachers who are not vaccinated.
“So, if we want to have a safe environment we should encourage those teachers to get vaccinated. Without being vaccinated, they are putting themselves at risk for infection and not just in the schools, but in the community. If they have been fully vaccinated, I want to encourage them to get their booster doses.”
In relation to persons between 12 and 17 years old, he disclosed that just around 42.6 per cent of them have received the first dose of the US-made Pfizer vaccine. Considering this, he said, “These children, we need them to get at least a second dose. There is that possibility of them getting a booster dose.”
“There is a lot of work to be done in this age group to make sure that they are fully vaccinated. Parents need to encourage their children to get vaccinated. And secondly, teachers also need to encourage children to get vaccinated,” he added.
The Health Minister said that health officials are willing to go from school to school to administer the vaccine to children but teachers and the schools’ administration have to assist with getting parental consent. In the meantime, the Health Ministry is still working to procure a milder form of the Pfizer vaccine for those under 12 years.
While health personnel here believe that they can dilute the Pfizer vaccine appropriately for use in the lower age category, Minister Anthony noted that it has not been advised. And with the vaccine only available in the United States, Dr Athony announced that Guyana is working closely with the Caribbean Community (Caricom) to acquire bulk doses of the vaccine.
With doses of the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine now limited, 25,000 doses are expected to arrive in Guyana this week through the COVAX facility.

Pfizer booster, Sputnik
On Monday, the Health Minister announced that persons who have been fully inoculated with the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccine can now take the Pfizer vaccine as their booster shot. This decision was made following a scientific evaluation.
Previously, persons who took Sputnik V as a primary vaccine were advised to take the Johnson and Johnson jab as a booster. Persons are therefore being encouraged to visit any of the vaccination sites countrywide to take the shot.
“Initially, when we looked at it, we thought that the most compatible would have been the J&J vaccine which helps to achieve two things; one to give people their booster doses and secondly, to travel… therefore, when the committee would have done that scientific evaluation, they felt that Pfizer can also be offered and therefore, we have adjusted the schedule to allow our staff to be able to give that Pfizer dose as a booster…,” Minister Anthony related.

Less hospitalisation
Despite the recent spike in coronavirus cases, there have been fewer persons requiring hospitalisation, the Health Minister reported. He explained, “Our numbers are pretty okay. Of the 6000 active cases, a very few number [of persons] require hospitalisation. The ratio of persons infected with Omicron and the ratio of persons coming into the hospital… that ratio has gone down significantly.”
Notwithstanding, he cautioned, “But we still have to be mindful. Not many children who have been infected have come into the hospital. And those who have come into the hospital have had other complications. But that is something we are monitoring.”
He said that the Omicron “behaves differently” from what has been observed with the Delta variant. Once someone gets infected with the Delta variant, the Health Minister explained that the individual would develop a severe form of COVID-19 that requires hospitalisation, with death occurring from time to time.
Dr Anthony continued, “With Omicron, it is much different, persons who are infected would have the disease more in their nose, in their throat. It behaves more like an upper respiratory tract infection. However, there are some people who have comorbidities who would become hospitalised and because of its contagiousness, it [Omicron] is affecting more people, so you would have more hospitalisation.” (G1)