…46 more new cases recorded
The Health Ministry on Sunday reported that two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.
These latest fatalities are a 57-year-old male who died on Sunday, July 17 and a 102-year-old female who died on Saturday, July 16 – both from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
With these, the total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana has gone up to 1266. 
Meanwhile, another 46 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 within a 24-hour period.
Active cases in the country are now 984. This includes two patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining persons in isolation, that is, 950 in home isolation and 32 in institutional isolation.
One other person is also in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 66,663 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus – 74 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total 670,095 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this, some 31,607 males and 37,306 females were found to be positive.
Of the 46 new cases recorded on Sunday, one was from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), four cases from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 33 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region, three more from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), another four cases from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and the remaining one case from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in the other four regions across the country within the reporting 24-hour period.
After a prolonged period of declining cases, the Guyana Government, back in March, removed most restrictions as the country moves to recover from the pandemic and return to normalcy. But in recent weeks, there has been a spike in COVID cases here, which health authorities have attributed to the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron strain.
To this end, health authorities have been urging persons to get vaccinated, and for those qualified to get their booster shots, as a layer of protection.
Vaccination
Latest vaccination figures show that so far, over 442,200 or 86.6 per cent of adults have taken a first dose, while some 344,000 or 67.1 per cent of persons 18 years and over are fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, more than 25,700 or 35.3 per cent are fully vaccinated. Vaccination for children in the five to 11 categories showed over 4000 first doses or 4.5 per cent.
In addition, more than 69,700 persons have returned for their booster shots thus far.
According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recent figures, some 557,917,904 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,358,899 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 166,308,606 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,773,046.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, the WHO also reported that a total of 12,130,881,147 doses have been administered worldwide. (G8)
