No danger for J&J COVID vaccine recipients – Health Minister

…after FDA issued-limitation

Recipients of the Johnson and Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine should not panic amid the decision of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that use of the jab should be limited.
The US Food and Drug Administration announced on Thursday that it is limiting the emergency use authorisation of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to adults or those for which other vaccines are not appropriate. The decision is due to the risk of a rare clotting condition called thrombosis, with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS), after receiving the vaccine.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony on Friday reassured Guyanese who have taken the jab that they should not panic, since complications do not manifest after two weeks of taking the shot.
“Persons who have received Johnson and Johnson vaccines, they don’t have to panic. If you have received the vaccine and you had no complications, then you won’t have any complications now. Generally, after vaccination, you would see thrombocytopenia developing about a week or two weeks after the vaccination. If you’ve had the vaccines and nothing happened, then you’re not in danger,” Dr Anthony underscored in his COVID update.
He added that limiting the use of the vaccine is just a precautionary measure, but statistics have shown that the possibility of such complications are very rare – about 3.25 in every one million.
“This is just a precautionary recommendation that is being made in the United States. The FDA, in its recommendation, has also said that it has limited the use of the vaccines, it hasn’t stopped it. It has limited the use of the vaccine to adults and to persons who might need to use the vaccine because of special medical conditions where they cannot use the other vaccines,” he said.
Guyana has been using the J&J vaccine in its campaign for over one year. To date, there has been no report of anyone developing any of the mentioned conditions or suffering from any health complication.
Vaccination uptake against COVID has remained relatively low this month, with adult coverage standing at 440,628 first doses, or 85.9 per cent of the adult population; and 339,960 second doses, or 66.3 per cent of that population.
For the adolescent category, some 25,301 persons, or 34.7 per cent of that demographic, have been fully immunised. Almost 62,900 booster shots have been administered.

Positives
Six new positives were recorded on Friday. Now, 63,539 confirmed cases have been detected in the country, and there have been 1,228 deaths.
Active cases account for one in Region Two, 17 in Region Three, 53 in Region Four, two in Region Five, 25 in Region Six, one in Region Seven, five in Region Nine and three in Region 10.
Of the 29,261 males and 34,278 females that tested positive, 62,210 have recovered. There are 99 persons in home isolation and one person in institutional isolation.
Only one COVID-19 patient is being treated in the Intensive Care Unit of the Infectious Diseases Hospital, East Coast Demerara (ECD).
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or need any additional information, they are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline numbers: 231-1166, 226-7480, or 624-6674 immediately, or visit www.health.gov.gy.
Global figures show that almost 511.9 million people have tested positive for the virus, and 6.2 million have died. In the Americas, more than 153.2 confirmed cases have been reported, with over 2.7 million deaths. (G12)