2 more COVID-19 fatalities take death toll to 1030

– 53 new cases detected

The Ministry of Health on Sunday reported that two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.
These latest fatalities are a 34-year-old female from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), who died on December 16, and a 66-year-old male from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who died on December 18. The vaccination status of the woman is unknown, while the male was fully vaccinated.
This takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 1030.
With this, the total number of deaths in Guyana from the pandemic has gone up to 1030. Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death toll for the month of December is now at 31.
New statistics provided by the Ministry showed that 53 new COVID-19 cases were detected within a 24-hour period, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 38,870.
Of this, however, only 798 are currently active cases including 10 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 788 persons in isolation, that is, 39 in institutional isolation and the other 749 in home isolation.
Additionally, there are also two persons in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 37,042 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus – six more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana last year, some 412,068 persons have been tested, from which 18,335 males and 20,535 females have tested positive to date.
Of the 53 new cases recorded on Sunday, one was from Region One (Barima-Waini), another one from the Pomeroon-Supenaam region, one more from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 17 cases from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), a whopping 27 cases from the East Berbice-Corentyne region and six from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).
No new cases were recorded in Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) within the last 24-hour period.
In order to curb the rising number of cases in the country, the Guyana Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercise back in February and is aggressively rolling it out across the various regions in order to achieve herd immunity. In fact, it has also started administering booster shots.
The latest vaccination figures show that over 407,000 adults have received a first dose vaccine while more than 288,000 are fully immunised.
With regards to adolescents, over 30,000 got their first dose and over 21,000 are fully vaccinated.
In addition, over 7000 booster shots have been administered to the adult population.
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine provides a layer of protection against severe symptoms of the deadly COVID-19.
Nevertheless, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising. The measures also include vaccination requirements to access any public building such as restaurants, places of worship, schools as well as Government buildings.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), recent figures show that some 271,963,258 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 5,331,019 deaths.
The WHO also reported that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 99,115,289 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,378,490.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, a total of 8,337,664,456 doses have been administered worldwide.