29 new COVID-19 cases recorded, 5 in ICU

With 29 new cases of COVID-19 as of Saturday, the country’s total figures made another jump to 6105 positives. However, of this amount, 5305 persons have recovered.
The statistics were published on the Health Ministry’s daily dashboard, showing the death toll remaining at 159. The last death was reported on Thursday.
The data presented a gender breakdown of 3158 males and 2947 females being infected thus far. The number of persons in the designated Intensive Care Unit was five, with 26 persons in institutional isolation, 600 in home isolation and 22 in institutional quarantine.
A regional breakdown of the new cases showed new cases in Region One (Barima-Waini), Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The cases in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remained at 186; 298; 183 and 391 respectively.
Guyana is a part of the COVAX mechanism – the global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access to COVID-19 vaccines for all countries regardless of income level. COVAX announced on Friday that it has arrangements in place to access nearly two billion doses of vaccine, on behalf of 190 participating economies.
“For the vast majority of these deals, COVAX has guaranteed access to a portion of the first wave of production, followed by volume scales as further supply becomes available. The arrangements announced will enable all participating economies to have access to doses in the first half of 2021, with first deliveries anticipated to begin in the first quarter of 2021 – contingent upon regulatory approvals and countries’ readiness for delivery,” the World Health Organisation said in a statement.
This past week, it brokered an advance purchase agreement with AstraZeneca for 170 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Johnson & Johnson for 500 million doses of the Janssen candidate. The latter is being investigated as a single-dose vaccine.
These deals are in addition to existing agreements COVAX has with the Serum Institute of India (SII) for 200 million doses – with options for up to 900 million doses more of either the AstraZeneca/Oxford or Novavax candidates; as well as a statement of intent for 200 million doses of the Sanofi/GSK vaccine candidate.
To achieve this feat, COVAX currently estimates it needs to raise an additional US$6.8 billion in 2021, a breakdown of US$800 million for research and development, at least US$4.6 billion for the COVAX Advance Market Commitment (AMC) and US$1.4 billion for delivery support.