1 new death, 92 COVID-19 cases recorded

…359 test results back from CARPHA

Guyana’s coronavirus death toll has risen to 47, with one new fatality as of Monday. The Health Ministry also announced an increase of 92 positive cases, translating to 1560 infections from COVID-19 reported in Guyana.
The latest death is a 79-year-old male from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) – an area which has been hit hard by the life-threatening virus. The man, whose identity was not disclosed, was being treated at a designated COVID-19 facility. The Health Ministry said the test sample was collected from the patient at the time of admission and tested positive for COVID-19 subsequently.
Meanwhile, there are now 16 persons in the designated Intensive Care Unit – an increase of two. The number of persons on home isolation has raised from 402 to 488. Some 47 persons are in institutional isolation and 68 in institutional quarantine. From the confirmed cases, 962 persons have recovered.
Statistics from the Health Ministry’s dashboard showed a gender breakdown of 771 males and 789 females that have been infected thus far.
A breakdown of the new cases showed that four were detected in Region One (Barima-Waini), three in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), five in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 31 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), four in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); four in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 38 in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and three in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The other regional figures remain the same with nine in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and 24 in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni). On Monday, the number of persons tested increased by 359 and contributed to the accumulated figure of 9762.

Test results
The Ministry also informed that 359 test results returned from the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) – where a portion of samples was sent to clear some of the existing backlog which had accumulated over the past several weeks. The results are part of 500 tests that were sent for processing.
“Last week, 500 COVID-19 test samples were dispatched to the CARPHA’s Medical Microbiology Laboratory (CMML) to help Guyana speed up the delivery of COVID-19 test results. Out of the 500 samples sent to CARPHA, 359 test results were processed thus far and the results were made available to the Ministry of Health over the weekend,” the Ministry noted.
At present, samples can be sent to CARPHA only from the National Public Health Reference Laboratory in Guyana. Once a sample is sent to CMML, CARPHA issues the results to the Chief Medical Officers at the respective Health Ministries in the region, who are responsible for the dissemination of those results.
“The CMML currently tests all suspected cases of COVID-19, as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) case definition, provided by the WHO Global surveillance for COVID-19 caused by human infection with COVID-19 virus.”
The regional laboratory uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method, which is recommended by the WHO. This method remains the gold standard for COVID-19 laboratory diagnosis, as the sensitivity and specificity of such tests are nearly 99.99 per cent accurate. The facility also ensures appropriate quality control measures are followed to guarantee the accuracy of all results.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has expressed appreciation to CARPHA for their continued technical support and assistance to Guyana during the COVID-19 pandemic.