By Sue-Ann Wayow
THERE is another person who may be experiencing thrombocytopenia after taking the Covid-19 vaccine says Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Roshan Parasram.
Speaking at the Ministry of Health’s virtual press conference on Monday Dr Parasram said the second case was still under investigation.
Thrombocytopenia is a condition of low blood-platelet count.
The CMO said, “There is a second person that fits the criteria, only came to light a day ago, that is still under investigation. It seems likely that it may be another case of that syndrome. That will be two cases of that syndrome if it is confirmed hopefully by the end of today.”
Those persons were being treated according to the World Health Organization (WHO) standards Dr Parasram said.
He added that the syndrome that indicates a low level of platelets was very rare.
Dr Parasram also said, “There have been some other mild allergic type reactions that have been documented where persons would have had allergies about ten to 15 minutes after having the vaccine, I know of a few cases that had to go to hospital, they have been treated, they are well and they have been discharged.”
He said to date, there were no vaccine related deaths and maintained that side effects from both the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines were minimal lasting two to three days.
NCRHA vaccine appointments
Chief Executive Officer of the North Central Regional Health Authority Davlin Thomas said last week personnel making appointments for second doses of the vaccine had increased in numbers.
He said, “We anticipate that by the end of this week, we should have those appointments for the second doses particularly AstraZeneca and Sinopharm, those calls completed within the next week.”
He said to date, there 2,000 to 3,000 appointments made already for this week.
“We anticipate that it will run pretty smoothly,” Thomas said.
The CMO added that while the chance of getting infected while vaccinated with two doses were greatly reduced the risk still needed to be mitigated and caution would be taken for persons entering the country.
Dr Parasram said, “With the advent of doing a 72 hour PCR on top of vaccination, it further minimise the risk group that is coming into the country. We will bear all of those things into consideration when we make our ultimate decision as to how long, if there is any quarantine how long that quarantine will last.”
Information will then provided to Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and a final decision will be taken he said.
He added that with the exception of the AstraZeneca vaccine, others have not produced sufficient data to show percentage decrease in infection rate.
And he said vaccines will be distributed to the general public as long as it become available.
