Over 7800 paediatric COVID-19 cases recorded since March 2020

…parental consent low for children’s vaccination – Health Minister

After almost two years of battling the pandemic in Guyana, statistics show that there were over 7800 paediatric infections detected by the Health Ministry.
While addressing the issue of paediatric COVID-19 infections in Monday’s briefing, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said a majority of these cases have been mild with low chances of hospitalisation.
However, there were instances where some persons required hospitalisation, along with 17 reported deaths.
“Over the course of the pandemic, we’ve had a number of paediatric cases. In total, since the pandemic started, we would have seen 7831 paediatric cases. Most of these cases have been mild so they don’t require hospitalisation but unfortunately, we’ve had 55 persons coming into the hospital and of these 55, we would have had 17 deaths. That’s for the entire duration of the pandemic,” he revealed.

Parental consent
In the 12 to 17 age group, vaccination numbers remain low as only 23,383 or 32.1 per cent are fully vaccinated. A noteworthy challenge, he relayed, is parental consent for children to take the shots.
“The big challenge here is that a lot of children have not been getting their vaccines because they haven’t received explicit permission from their parents. Parents need to give consent for us to do the administration of vaccines and so we’re really appealing to parents to give that consent so that we can protect your child. We want to have more programmes in the school system to make sure that we can do the vaccination but we can only give the vaccines if the child comes back with permission to say that they have received parental consent.”
Dr Anthony also reiterated that children are not immune to the life-threatening virus – a factor which parents must gravely take into consideration.
“I’m hoping that parents would understand the seriousness of getting their children immunised and so that we can protect them from COVID-19. We still have children who would get infected, and when they get infected, a minority of them can get the severe form of the infection and some of that can be fatal. We really need people to remain protected and we have the means to protect people, which is vaccines,” he asserted.
Three weeks ago, the Health Ministry launched a probe after four paediatric COVID-19 deaths were reported in one week, and in light of the fact that three of those children succumbed before arrival to the hospital.
A committee of doctors was tasked with reviewing the charts and data from these cases thoroughly, obtaining information from parents to understand this trend. In the past, a majority of children succumbing to the virus were diagnosed with one or more comorbid conditions which augmented their risks.
The Ministry has been pursuing avenues to secure vaccines for children within the five to 11 age group. Through Caricom, negotiations have started with Pfizer to determine whether the region can access these jabs.
“We have made known, how much of these vaccines we would need for our population. We’re anxiously awaiting for those negotiations to be completed for us to get an understanding as to when we can access those vaccines.”
This month, Pfizer also submitted to the USFDA for review, a vaccine for the six months to five-year category. However, upon approval, it will take a few months before countries can access the jabs.
Meanwhile, 426,317 or 83.1 per cent of adults have been vaccinated with a first dose COVID-19 vaccine. In terms of second dose, 317,770 or 71.9 per cent are completely immunised. Only 42,629 booster shots have been administered as authorities continue to encourage Guyanese to enhance their protection against the virus.
“This can really improve significantly. I want to appeal to everyone who would have gotten their doses five months ago to please come back and get their booster shot so that you can remain protected,” said the Health Minister. (G12)