3 more COVID-19 deaths, 111 new cases recorded

Another three persons have died after contracting the novel coronavirus in Guyana, with another 111 new infections surfacing in one day.
With a death toll of 573, latest deaths are a 54-year-old woman from Region Three, a 65-year-old man from Region Four and a 47-year-old woman from Region Five. They died on Thursday while receiving care at a medical facility.
Total confirmed cases in the country now stand at 23,455 with the additional 111 new cases. This represents a gender breakdown of 11,416 males and 12,039 females.
There are 16 persons in the Intensive Care Unit, 80 in institutional isolation, 859 in home isolation and six in institutional quarantine. Recoveries are pegged at 21,927 while 243,049 have been tested.

New cases
Regionally, there were three new cases Region One (Barima-Waini), 25 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), four in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 69 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), one in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), two in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), two in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), one in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and four in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no increases in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).
With over 282,000 first doses administered and more than 146,000 persons returning for the second doses, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony acknowledged on Friday that there is still some level of vaccine hesitancy – which authorities are trying to dispel by providing accurate information.
“There are many factors that are driving the hesitancy. Some of it can be because of influential persons just spreading misinformation pertaining to the vaccine and some of those persons themselves do not have adequate knowledge about the vaccine and unfortunately, they influence others. One of the strategies that we have been using is trying to talk to organisations with these persons and offering to run education sessions so that they become better aware of vaccines, types of vaccines, the efficacy, how it works, safety and all of those good things,” the Minister pointed out.
He said engagements are continuing at the level of religious networks, non-governmental organisations and other community-led organisations. Misinformation on social media, he shared, is also a significant setback but persons were urged to acquire data from credible sites.
“We have been working with a number of NGOs – national ones and community-based ones – so that we can get more people talking about the vaccines and being able to spread the right information. That has been one way in which we have been working. There are a lot of misinformation on social media and that’s much more difficult to counter but we want people instead of looking on social media whether there might be a lot of inauthentic types of information, that if we can get them to look at websites that are authentic where you can have authentic information.”
Agencies which provide accurate information include the World Health Organisation, Pan American Health Organisation, the Lancet Journal and the Center for Disease Control among others. Sensitisation also continues through the Ministry’s social media platform. (G12)