Ministry denies withholding info on children infected with COVID

The Ministry of Health yesterday rejected a claim that it had withheld information from the public on the number of children infected with COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic.

That claim was made in a letter by GHK Lall in the July 4th edition of the Sunday Stabroek and followed the release of data on July 2nd by Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony where he highlighted that four children were in the COVID ICU.

Dr Anthony had also said then that some 1,567 children between one-month and fourteen-years-old had been infected with COVID-19 in Guyana since the start of the pandemic. Of that number 287 were children between one-month and four-years-old, 524 between five and nine years old and 756 between ten to fourteen-years-old.

The release of this information led Lall to charge that it had been suppressed all along. While the Ministry has issued daily reports on the number of COVID infections there is no indication of how many children are infected. Over the period of the pandemic, the ministry has spoken occasionally about infections among children.

In its statement yesterday, the ministry said that Lall wrongly accused the Minister and the government of concealing data.

“The fact is that since August of 2020, the Minister of Health and other Ministry personnel have been informing the public each time children were tested positive for the COVID-19 virus. Since the epidemic started, between 5 and 10% of positive cases in Guyana have been children between newborns and 16 years of age. Most of the cases have been asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and were only detected through the MoH proactive surveillance programme, such as testing in school dorms. The results of these tests have been in the public domain, even if persons like Mr Lall may not have paid attention. While the Ministry in the past did not disaggregate the total results as per age group in our daily reporting, we highlighted those occasions when children were found positive for the COVID-19 virus, even if our reporting did not keep a running count”, the statement said.

The ministry added that it has always sought to caution people that the COVID-19 virus is transmissible across all age groups.

“In children, the disease is usually mild and often asymptomatic. However, in rare cases, children can become seriously ill and need hospitalization and intensive care. One of the possible adverse outcomes has been termed multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C). The overall mortality of MIS-C is approximately 1–2%. In all our engagement with the public, we tried to explain this risk that children face”, the ministry said.

It contended that the percentage of infections among children in Guyana is not unlike what has been seen in other countries over time. In 2020, globally, it said that children accounted for 3 to 12% of COVID-19 virus detection rates. In 2021, the rates have jumped to 22% in most countries due to various COVID-19 variants.

In Guyana, the ministry said that among the total detected cases so far, children represent about 7%. It added that even though Guyana has recorded children testing positive for COVID-19 in the past, as did every single country in the world, there is a big difference in recent weeks in Guyana.

“The increase in hospitalization of children with COVID-19 is worrying. It is the Minister of Health who immediately informed the public. When the Minister made the disclosure, it was the first time the country had four COVID-19 hospitalised children, and apart from COVID 19, each of these children had underlying comorbidities”, the ministry added.

It said that the recent more aggressive cases in adults and now some children underline the caution the Minister and the Ministry have been vigorously making over the last several months that there is a more aggressive form of COVID-19 virus circulating in Guyana.

Though it referenced a more aggressive form of COVID-19, the ministry has not presented any data in recent weeks on whether COVID variants have been detected here.