Vaccine benefits for pregnant women outweigh side effects – Health Minister

…43% adults completely immunised

Minimal side effects associated with the COVID-19 vaccine are insignificant when compared to the benefits which pregnant and breastfeeding mothers will attain, since it drastically reduces their risk of serious infection or death.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared this position on Monday in the COVID-19 update, where he informed that in addition to the shots being safe, they could be administered in any trimester.
“The side effects are minimal…but these things don’t last. They go for 24 to 36 hours after which everything returns back to normal. All the data that we now have pertaining to these vaccines is that it’s safe during pregnancy, whether it’s in the first three months, second three months, or the last three months. At what point you choose to get the vaccine, it doesn’t matter,” said Dr Anthony.

Since the Pfizer vaccines were available for women in this bracket, the Ministry has started a campaign to get more persons vaccinated. Interest has been growing, with more women taking the initiative to get vaccinated. Collaboration has already started with private entities to see this plan through.
“There have been additional interest and a lot of women had been showing interest in getting vaccinated. They have been asking a lot of questions and as we roll it out to different regions, I expect we will have higher uptake. We have also been working with private hospitals and the doctors at those hospitals have been promoting for pregnant and breastfeeding women to get vaccinated,” Dr Anthony said.
In Guyana, approximately 14,000 pregnancies are reported yearly. The Health Minister noted that most pregnant women were at risk of contracting COVID-19, but immunisation would reduce those chances as well as hospitalisation or death. If vaccinated, some antibodies would also be passed to the child, transferring some protection against the virus.
“It protects you. It reduces your chance of getting infected. It reduces your chance of being hospitalised with a more severe form of COVID and reduces your chance of death. I think these are three of the main benefits,” he asserted.
Last week, it was revealed that infections among pregnant women were on the rise – with some being hospitalised. All of these women were unvaccinated and the Minister had identified challenges in managing such cases.
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are stored at -70 degrees Celsius, but can be moved at -20 degrees Celsius and ultimately kept at two to eight degrees Celsius before administration.
“Once you do that, there is a limited amount of time in which to vaccinate persons. You can’t start reducing the temperature and refreeze it. Once you reduce the temperature, you will have to use the vaccine and that’s what we have been doing,” the Minister detailed.
Owing to this, the Ministry has been working with health clinics to ensure that there are sufficient patients before transporting the vaccines to those sites, in order to reduce wastage.
Vaccination statistics for first doses are at 367,645 or 71.7 per cent of the adult population. Some 223,148 second doses – covering 43.5 per cent of the adult population – have been administered. Meanwhile, 25,787 first doses have been administered to 35.4 per cent of the adolescent age cohort, with 15,196 returning for a second jab. (G12)