Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony is calling on women across to Guyana to get vaccinated against COVID-19, as it offers protection against severe forms of the disease.

Speaking during his daily Covid update on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony said over 500 women have died from the disease since its onset in 2020, many of whom were unvaccinated.

“We have had 560 women dying from covid so far, and of these deaths 93 of them had at least one dose of a vaccine, while 467 of the persons who have died were unvaccinated,” Dr. Anthony said.

He noted that of the 61,853 cases recorded in Guyana, 34,029 were women, of which only 2,901 received at least a first dose of the vaccine, while 31,128 did not take the jab.

The 20-30 age category was most affected with 16, 231 cases, followed by the 40-59 age category with 8,352, the 0-19 age category with 5,419 and the 60-19 age category with 3,220 cases.

“It’s significant to note how many of these women have not been vaccinated and therefore it makes the point that we should really urge people to go out and get vaccinated,” Dr. Anthony said.

He reiterated that the vaccines have been proven safe, and only have a few general side effects which come with most vaccines.

The COVID-19 vaccine does not affect fertility. Minister Anthony assured that “very robust scientific studies were done and it has shown that it does not affect fertility.” He also encouragedpregnant women to get vaccinated against the disease, as they are at a higher risk.

Babies can also get additional protection from their mothers, Dr. Anthony said, noting that, “if the woman is breastfeeding the baby will get an additional benefit from the mother being vaccinated and that is some of the antibodies that the vaccine would produce to fight off the Covid-19 some of those anti bodies can pass through the breast milk and go to the baby.”

For women considering getting a mammogram, Dr. Anthony advised that they should speak to their health care provider as the vaccine could cause temporary enlargement of the lymph nodes in the deltoid muscle in some people.  

It is therefore recommended that the mammogram be done six weeks after taking the vaccine.

COVID-19 cases continue to decline in Guyana with only 15 recorded new cases in the last 24 hours which take the current active cases to 251.