3 more unvaccinated persons die from COVID-19

…289 new cases recorded

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Wednesday reiterated the importance of persons getting vaccinated against the life-threatening novel coronavirus as he announced that another three unvaccinated persons have died from complications caused by the disease.
The latest fatalities are all females – a 36-year-old and a 45-year-old from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), and an 81-year-old woman from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
They all died on Tuesday while receiving care at medical institutions across the country after previously being admitted with COVID-19-like symptoms. Samples taken at the time of admission subsequently returned positive tests.
With these, the total number of deaths from the virus in Guyana has gone up to 657. Consequently, the COVID-19 death toll for the month of September has climbed to 32.
Meanwhile, some 2205 tests were conducted in the previous 24 hours from which 289 new infections were detected. This takes the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 27, 061.
Also, in the previous 24 hours, active cases in Guyana went up to 2642, including 36 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 131 persons in institutional isolation and 2475 persons in home isolation.
In fact, 125 persons who are infected with COVID-19 are currently patients in hospitals across the country with 92 of them at the Ocean View facility at Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, which houses the COVID-19 ICU.
Moreover, there are another six persons in institutional quarantine. To date, some 23,762 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease – with 66 more recoveries than the day before.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana last year, some 280,748 persons have been tested and of this, 13,022 males and 14,039 females were found to be positive.

New cases
The 289 new cases recorded on Wednesday comprised persons from all 10 regions across of Guyana. According to the Ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard, these include four cases from Region One (Barima-Waini); 16 cases from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); 48 from Essequibo Islands-West Demerara; a whopping 179 cases from Demerara-Mahaica; seven from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 15 from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), five from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), two from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), five from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining eight cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice).
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.
So far, some 325,095 adults have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, which represents 63.4 per cent of the adult population. Of that amount, 170,125 persons are fully immunised, that is, 33.2 per cent of persons 18 years and older.
Earlier this month, Government also began the vaccination of children using the Pfizer jab and to date, some 15,241 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17 have been given their first shot – reflecting 20.9 per cent of those within that age group.
According to Minister Anthony, Tuesday saw a record 6103 persons being vaccinated in one day. This includes 2507 adults taking their first dose, another 916 persons getting their second dose and some 2678 children receiving their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
He used the opportunity to commend the staff both within the Health Ministry as well as the Education Ministry in rolling out the vaccination exercise.
In the same breath, however, Dr Anthony cautioned against the increasing cases of COVID-19 infections which are leading to more hospitalisations and admissions in the ICU. This, he explained, is as a result of the Delta variant, which Government suspects is circulating here, being more easily transmitted.

“So, if people are not taking the precautions and they’re exposed to infected persons, they are going to get the virus. Now, some people might get it mildly and some others might have a moderate form of the disease and there are those persons who would have the severe form of the disease… [and] it could require hospitalisation and possibly, you’d have to come into the ICU. So, again we’ve seen the numbers in hospitals go up, we’ve seen the ICU patients going up, we know this happens with the Delta variant and that’s why we’ve been urging people to be very cautious and take precautions,” the Health Minister added.
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 have been updated to also include vaccination requirements to access all public buildings, including privately-owned premises such as supermarkets, restaurants, and places of worship.

No more passenger locator/health declaration
Meanwhile, Government has also revised travel requirements for persons entering Guyana.
The Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) announced on Wednesday that persons are no longer required to submit the Passenger Locator/Health Declaration Form prior to travelling to Guyana.
“To further enhance the passenger travel experience, a decision was taken to discontinue the use of the form with immediate effect,” the CJIA stated.
In order to enter Guyana, persons are now only required to provide a negative PCR test, taken no later than seven days – if it is within four to seven days, then a second test is required at the CJIA before entering the country – and proof of vaccination. (G12)