– 42 new infections reported in 24h
The Health Ministry reported on Sunday that two more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.
These latest fatalities are a 76-year-old male who died on December 5, and a 74-year-old female who died on December 3 – both from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). While the vaccination status of the male is unknown, the female was unvaccinated at the time of her death.
With this, the total number of deaths in Guyana from the pandemic has gone up to 1006. However, the COVID-19 death toll for the month of December is now at seven.
According to new statistics provided by the Ministry on Sunday, some 42 new COVID-19 cases were detected within a 24-hour period, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 38,160.
Of this, however, only 984 are currently active cases including 17 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 967 persons in isolation, that is, 54 in institutional isolation and the other 913 in home isolation.
In addition, there are also five persons in institutional quarantine.
There were no new recoveries reported from the life-threatening virus as the figure on Sunday’s updated COVID-19 dashboard remained at 36,170.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana last year, some 396,734 persons have been tested, from which 17,985 males and 20,175 females have tested positive to date.
Of the 42 new cases recorded on Sunday, one was from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 10 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region and a whopping 31 cases from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
No new cases were recorded in Regions One (Barima-Waini); Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); Five (Mahaica-Berbice); Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) in the last 24 hours.
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.
The latest vaccination figures show that Guyana has seen 736,444 doses of COVID vaccines being administered. For adults, 402,751 doses or 78.5 per cent have taken a first dose; while second doses account for 281,455 or 54.9 per cent.
In terms of children aged 12 to 17, some 29,382 first doses and 20,581 second doses have been distributed. Booster jabs account for 2274 of the total number.
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 263,563,622 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 5,232,562 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 97,326,081 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,355,628.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, a total of 7,864,123,038 doses have been administered worldwide.
