…Heath Ministry to deliberate on vaccine travel card
The Health Ministry on Saturday reported that two more persons have succumbed to COVID-19, thus bringing the death toll to 424. There have been 26 deaths for the month of June.
The latest fatalities are a 51-year-old woman from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and a 71-year-old male from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo). Both persons succumbed on Friday while receiving care at medical facilities.
However, another 107 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, thus bringing the confirmed cases to date to 18,303.
The new cases were recorded from the 1199 samples that were collected and sent for testing.
New statistics provided by the Ministry showed that 21 persons remain in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 113 in institutional isolation, 1495 in home isolation and three persons in institutional quarantine. Some 16,250 of the 8988 males and 9315 females have recovered completely. To date, Guyana has tested 168,284 individuals.
A breakdown of new cases showed that two were detected in Region One (Barima-Waini), 16 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), nine in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 55 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), four in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), five in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), two in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), two in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 12 in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice)
Cases in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) remain at 370 after no new positives were detected.
In the latest COVID-19 update, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony underscored that a vaccination certificate for travel will be deliberated upon in the coming future, as more persons take the vaccine and countries open their borders with this stipulation for entry.
“We will have to consider what would be our options as we vaccinate more and more of our people. Some of these types of considerations we will have to take on board, especially if countries to which the airlines who are here fly to would be asking for such travel documents. If that becomes a requirement, then we probably would have to follow suit. But the way things are going, it looks like a lot of countries are going to be implementing these vaccine passport or travel certificate. There is still that discussion that is ongoing but some countries have already decided and they’re moving ahead,” the Minister outlined.
He had previously warned that stringent measures will be taken against anyone found culpable of forging the COVID-19 vaccine certificate – a document issued by health officials after a person is immunised.
It was outlined that the forging of vaccination certificates is a serious crime and anyone guilty of such an act will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
Symptoms of the coronavirus include fever, cough, tiredness, diarrhoea, pains, sore throat and loss of taste or smell.
The more serious symptoms are difficulty breathing or shortness of breath, chest pain and loss of speech or movement.
If persons are experiencing symptoms or have been in contact with a positive person, they are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline on 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy. (G12)
