–says health minister

PATIENTS who have recovered after being infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease COVID-19, will also receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has said.
The minister, during his COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI) on Thursday, said that the local authorities prefer to wait until persons have recovered from the disease before administering the vaccines to them.
This position has been adopted due to cognisance that an infected person’s body will start to produce antibodies as part of the natural immune response to fight off the coronavirus infection. At that point, the minister explained, there is no need for a vaccine.

“The vaccines really help you not to get the severe form of the disease, so you want to give healthy people the vaccine so their immune system develops antibodies and then if you come in contact with somebody who has COVID-19, you are able to fight the disease off,” the minister reasoned.
Once a person recovers after being infected, those antibodies will remain in the body and would help to protect individuals from contracting the virus again for at least about two months, according to Dr. Anthony.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), through advice issued by its Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE), stated that individuals, who have confirmed positive infection through the use of the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests, should not be vaccinated until after they have recovered from acute illness and the criteria for discontinuation of isolation has been met.

Furthermore, the WHO noted: “Persons with PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection may delay vaccination for six months. When more data on (the) duration of immunity after natural infection become available, the length of this delay may be revised.”
The organisation, however, said that available data indicates that symptomatic reinfection within six months, after an initial infection, is rare.
Dr. Anthony, previously opined that the WHO’s recommendation to delay vaccination in recovered persons may be due to cognisance of the scarcity of vaccines. As Guyana ambitiously attempts to vaccinate a majority of its population this year, he said that the country would be crafting guidelines for this post-infection vaccination scenario.

On Thursday, he reasoned: “I think the WHO’s recommendation is primarily because of the scarcity of vaccines so if you had the reinfection and recovered, they were basically saying give somebody else a chance because for the next two to three months, your antibodies would help to protect you.”
The WHO did also note that vaccination may be offered regardless of a person’s history of symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection. The added protection of vaccinating previously infected individuals, according to the WHO, is yet to be established.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony affirmed that once Guyana secures enough vaccines, every person, including those who have recovered, will be vaccinated.
So far, Guyana has been able to secure 3,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine from Barbados (through the donation made to that country by India); 80,000 doses of the same vaccine from India and 20,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine from China.
Beginning next week, the country is expected to receive 200,000 Sputnik V vaccines from Russia. The Guyana Chronicle understands that the country is also interested in the Covaxin vaccine produced by India.