Two new cases of the novel coronavirus have been detected, which raises the overall figure to 156.
Director of Primary Health Care, Dr Ertenisa Hamilton on Tuesday said that 38 tests were conducted and after two days of constant results, two samples turned up positive. Along with the 156 cases, there are still 12 deaths.
To date, the total number of persons tested is 1854, with the total number of negative cases being 1698. There are currently 86 recoveries, 58 active cases in institutional isolation, one patient in the COVID ICU and fourteen persons in institutional quarantine.
Statistics from the region show that Guyana is among the list of three countries which continue to record increased cases. On the other hand, other countries have not seen any new cases in several days. Presently, Trinidad and Tobago have zero active cases while Antigua has not seen any new positives in over one month.
Dr Hamilton addressed, “I wish to turn the spotlight on the Caribbean. As you are aware most of the Caribbean countries managed to limit the transmission of COVID-19 in their country, with Guyana, Jamaica and Haiti being among the only countries that continued to report new cases. Bravo to Barbados and Trinidad who have reported no new cases in 14 and seven days respectively and Antigua that has not reported any new cases in 35 days.”
She underscored the need to be cognisant of factors which can lower the number of reported cases. This includes: physical distancing, cough and sneeze etiquette, handwashing and most importantly, staying at home.
With cases still increasing locally, the national curfew and measures will expire in one week on June 17. The National COVID-19 Task Force would have granted a two-week extension to the measures and there has since been no indication whether it will be extended for the fourth time.
As of now, the 18:00h to 06:00h curfew will remain in place until one day after the date flouted for an official declaration.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the total number of cases globally is 6,931,000 with 400,857 deaths. In the region of the Americas, there are 3,311,387 cases with 181,804 deaths.
