…77 new cases
Two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) have died, according to the Health Ministry on Wednesday.
This now takes the total number of deaths from the virus locally to 484.
According to the Ministry, these latest fatalities are two males, a 59-year-old from Region Three (Essequibo Islands -West Demerara) and a 65-year-old from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). They both died on Tuesday while receiving care at medical facilities.
Since the beginning of July, eight persons have succumbed to the life-threatening disease. The total number of deaths from the virus in the month of June was 78. May was the deadliest month with 99 COVID-19 fatalities after surpassing April’s 66 death toll.
Meanwhile, some 77 new COVID-19 cases were detected from 920 tests conducted in the previous 24 hours.
With this, the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana is now 20,645 – 10,090 males and 10,555 females.
However, only 1514 of these are currently active cases. These include 15 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 1499 persons in isolation, that is, 89 in institutional isolation and the remaining 1410 in home isolation.
There are also three other persons in institutional quarantine, according to the Ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard on Wednesday.
Additionally, some 18,647 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.
Meanwhile, since the outbreak of the pandemic in Guyana last year, 195,695 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus so far.
A breakdown of the 77 new cases on Wednesday showed that five were detected in Region One (Barima-Waini); two cases in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); five in Region Three; a whopping 23 cases in Region Four; one in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); eight cases in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); four in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining 29 cases in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) in the previous 24 hours, according to Wednesday’s COVID-19 dashboard.
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 in the various regions in order to achieve heard immunity.
As of Tuesday, some 236,409 persons have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, representing some 48.6 per cent of the adult population. Meanwhile, fully immunised persons in the country as of Tuesday are some 115,652, that is, approximately 23.8 per cent of persons 18 years and older.
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine gives full protection against death. In fact, health authorities have disclosed that no one who is fully vaccinated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been hospitalised or died from the virus.
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 a 22:30h (10:30 pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew that is in effect until July 31, 2021.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Wednesday, some 184,324,026 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 3,992,680 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Wednesday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 73,118,205 while the death toll has gone up to 1,922,926.
