2 new deaths, 16 COVID-19 cases recorded

The Health Ministry has announced that two more persons have died from COVID-19, taking Guyana’s death toll now to 76.
These latest fatalities are a 36-year-old male of Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and a 45-year-old man of Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica). The ministry in a statement said that samples were collected from both at the time of admission at the Georgetown Public Hospital and subsequently tested positive for COVID-19.
Officials of the ministry have since contacted all relatives and persons to facilitate contact tracing and rapid assistance to everyone who may have been exposed to the now-dead persons. Additionally, 16 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded as of Saturday, the country’s total number of positive cases recorded is now 2725. However, of this amount, 1535 persons have recovered.
The statistics were published on the Health Ministry’s daily dashboard, showing a gender breakdown of 1438 males and 1287 females being infected thus far. The number of persons in the designated Intensive Care Unit has remained at 16.
The number of individuals on home isolation has reduced by 23, standing at 872. Meanwhile, some 232 persons are in institutional isolation and 82 in institutional quarantine. From the confirmed cases, 1535 persons have recovered – an increase of 45.
A regional breakdown of the new cases showed that 11 cases were detected in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and five in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
Constant figures show a total of 407 cases Region One (Barima-Waini), 32 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 203 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 15 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 35 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 284 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 65 in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and 97 in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
On Friday, the fatality was a 71-year-old woman from Region Two who died while seeking treatment. She was tested upon admission and the results returned positive.
With the number of deaths continuing to rapidly rise, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony had informed the public that they have managed to source the drug Remdesivir to treat patients who have fallen critically ill as a result of the novel coronavirus.
Remdesivir is an anti-viral drug administered by intravenous (IV) therapy to COVID-19 patients suffering from severe symptoms. It is known as a nucleoside analogue, which means that it mimics a component of viral ribonucleic acid (RNA) that the virus needs to replicate itself
The Minister explained that the drug is being made available to Guyana at a cheaper cost and has already been used to treat hospitalised and critically ill COVID-19 patients.
On the global scale, there are 32,110,656 cases of the virus with some 980,031 deaths. In the Americas, there are 15,987,906 cases with almost 541,000 deaths. Worldwide, 235 countries and territories have reported positive cases.
Persons displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or in need of any additional information are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline on 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy.
The national curfew of 6pm to 6am remains active and anyone found in breach of this provision or other regulations in the Emergency Covid-19 Measures under the Public Health Ordinance will be penalised. (G12)