10 new COVID cases detected in 24h

The Health Ministry on Thursday reported that 10 new COVID-19 infections were reported during a 24-hour period. This now takes the total number of active cases that are being monitored to 106.
Statistics showed that no patient is in the Intensive Care Unit, 99 are in home isolation, none is in institutional isolation, and seven are in institutional quarantine.
There are 62,130 recoveries from the 29,219 males and 34,238 females who had tested positive for the virus. A total of 594,884 COVID-19 tests have been carried out since the virus was first detected here. However, the Health Ministry has said there were no new fatalities, and the death toll remains at 1228.
The world has experienced COVID-19 as a pandemic, meaning several countries have experienced large amounts of cases in different waves. This can change into an epidemic, and later an endemic.
Health Minister Dr Anthony explained on Thursday: “What I think a lot of the scientists are hoping for is that we’ll be able to move COVID-19 from being a pandemic to one where it is going to be endemic, meaning that it would be in a few places. It would still exist, but it would be in a few places. In most countries, it would be properly controlled.”
For countries to reach that point, he advised, a significant percentage of the population should be vaccinated to achieve immunity. A challenge to consider, however, is that emerging variants can break through the protection of vaccines.
He added, “We’ll have to have stronger tracking. Apart from doing the regular tracking of diseases and hospitalisation, we’ll have to do genomic surveillance to be able to see whether there are newer, fitter varieties of variants that are emerging, and what would be the clinical manifestation of these variants. If we’re able to do that in real-time, then we’ll be able to prevent outbreaks.”
Adult vaccination statistics show 440,194 first doses, or 85.8 per cent; and 339,446-second doses, or 66.2 per cent. In terms of the 12-to- 17 age category, the coverage still lags, with 47.4 per cent for first doses and 34.6 per cent for second doses. Additionally, booster doses account for 62,218 shots.
Guyana is still listed as an Advanced Market Commitment (AMC) country under the COVAX mechanism, allowing accessibility to vaccines. Presently, Sinopharm, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson shots are available.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or need any additional information, they are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline: 231-1166, 226-7480, or 624-6674, immediately, or visit www.health.gov.gy.
Global figures show that almost 509.5 million people have tested positive for the virus, and 6.2 million have died. In the Americas, more than 152.7 confirmed cases have been reported, and over 2.7 million persons have died.