School principals on board for vaccination of students – Education Ministry

…consent forms ready
…as COVAX to deliver 100,000 Pfizer shots

The COVAX mechanism will be delivering 100,000 shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines to Guyana, as part of the next shipment of jabs that will arrive under this arrangement.
Representative from the Pan American Health Organisation, Dr Luis Codina said that the Pfizer shots are expected by September. The 100,000 doses will likely be used for the vaccination of adolescent children as Government seeks to reopen classrooms in the near future.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, one of two which has been approved for children aged 12 to 17, is proven to be 95 per cent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed infection with the virus that causes COVID-19 in people who received two doses.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony added that while the mechanism had promised to deliver doses to cover 20 per cent of Guyana’s population, this target can be exceeded at the rate at which countries are donating to this initiative.
“COVAX is also going to donate to us Pfizer vaccines and those are expected in the next shipment…We’re still working with that 20 per cent range. That has not changed. With the first three shipments, we did not get to 20 per cent as yet but in addition to that, there are countries that are donating vaccines to COVAX so while COVAX would have set itself an initial target of giving countries about 20 per cent of their needs, COVAX through the kind donations now have additional vaccines and they have been using that to top up countries,” Dr Anthony highlighted.
COVAX is a partnership between the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi – the Vaccine Alliance, the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
The mechanism aims to secure 1.3 billion doses for 92 low and middle-income countries by the end of the year. Guyana has been included among ten countries in Latin America and the Caribbean that are receiving vaccines at no cost through the Advance Market Commitment (AMC). Thus far, 120,000 AstraZeneca vaccines have been sent to immunise Guyanese.
The Health Ministry has already commenced preparations for the rollout of the Pfizer vaccines for children through collaboration with the Education Ministry. When completed, school-aged children will be able to return to school.
“We have since started training our staff on how to store the vaccines and have procured additional equipment to make sure that we can store these vaccines properly. The vaccines would come with special syringes. We have received those syringes yesterday and we will commence training for staff to use these types of syringes and once we complete that, we will be ready to start the rollout of this vaccination programme,” Dr Anthony had indicated.
Additionally, the 5000 Sputnik V doses that arrived on Friday will be available at vaccination sites from today. However, those awaiting their last jab of the vaccine have been assured that more is scheduled to arrive next week.
“Persons who are due now for the second dose Sputnik, which means persons from May, we would be able to give those doses probably from Sunday…By latest Monday, people will be able to access those doses,” the Minister noted.

Engagements
Meanwhile, the Education Ministry begun engagements with principals of schools regarding vaccination for students as the reopening of schools draws closer, amid announcement of the Pfizer shipment.
On Saturday, the Ministry outlined that reopening schools safely is inextricably linked with administration of this vaccine. Over 50 Head Teachers and senior teachers primarily from the secondary sector were part of these engagements to which the educators were all on board to support the successful implementation of this programme.

Consent
Education Minister Priya Manickchand said that consent forms will be made available to parents for them to fill out and submit which will serve as proof of the permission given to have their child vaccinated. Parents and guardians will also be required to be present when the vaccine is administered.
These forms have already been given to the Departments of Education in the 11 Education Districts (Regions One to 10 and Georgetown). Also, the form is available on the Ministry of Education’s website at: https://education.gov.gy/covid-vaccine. Additionally, parents and guardians can fill out the form and submit them electronically by using the link: https://forms.office.com/r/jGKHNM5mzk.
If parents choose to print the form but are unable to submit it, they can take a photograph of the completed form and submit using WhatsApp number: 652-9144.
On Saturday, the Ministry said that during its Because We Care cash grant initiative, parents at the various distribution centres were engaged on the vaccination matter and were also given a flyer with information regarding the vaccine so that when the time comes for an informed decision to be made, they have all the facts.
The reopening of schools to face to face engagement, the Ministry said, hinges heavily on the national vaccination programme.
“More of the adult population needs to be vaccinated to protect themselves and children, especially those who are below the age of 12 for whom no vaccine has been approved as yet…the Education sector has been hit hard due to the pandemic and having to close schools as a response. However, the longer the school doors are closed the more our students will suffer from learning loss and greater is the likelihood of an increase in school dropouts,” the Ministry said on Saturday. (G12)