The Health Ministry on Monday announced that a 30-year-old woman from Region Four is Guyana’s most recent COVID-19 victim. She reportedly died on August 1 while receiving medical attention at one of the healthcare facilities.
With her death, the country’s death toll has reached 547. On Sunday, the Ministry announced that five more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died. They all passed away in the latter part of July.
However, along with the one death on Monday, 22 new cases were recorded thus taking the confirmed positive cases to 22,619.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines donated by the UK Government
New statistics showed that 12 patients remain in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 90 in institutional isolation, 749 in home isolation and two in institutional quarantine. In total, 21,221 persons have recovered completely while 227,672 individuals were tested – of which 11,016 males and 11,603 females were positive.
An analysis showed two new cases in Region One (Barima-Waini); five in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 12 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); one in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and two in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).
High Commissioner Jane Miller and Minister Anthony with other representatives as the vaccine arrived
Cases in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Five (Demerara-Mahaica), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) did not increase.
Vaccine arrival
Meanwhile, the 84,800 Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines, which were promised by the United Kingdom Government landed at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport (CJIA) on Monday.
British High Commissioner Jane Miller and Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony were present with other officials to receive the donation which will aid in the continuation of Guyana’s vaccination administration nationwide.
These jabs were manufactured by Oxford Biomedica in Oxford and packaged in Wrexham, North Wales.
Last Wednesday, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab had announced that the doses reserved for Guyana are from the first batch of 100 million which the UK pledged in order to vaccinate poorer parts of the world urgently.
The UK Government said on its website that at least 80 million of the 100 million doses will go to COVAX, with the rest going to countries directly.
“The donations will help meet the pledge that G7 leaders made to vaccinate the world and end the pandemic in 2022. This week’s deployment will help meet the urgent need for vaccines from countries around the world, including in Africa, South East Asia and the Caribbean. These regions are experiencing high levels of COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths.”
Apart from Guyana, agreements were signed with Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Cambodia, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Laos, Malaysia, Philippines, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Thailand and Vietnam – amounting to some four million doses.
Foreign Secretary Raab was quoted as saying, “The UK is sending nine million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, the first batch of the 100 million doses we’ve pledged, to get the most vulnerable parts of the world vaccinated as a matter of urgency…We’re doing this to help the most vulnerable, but also because we know we won’t be safe until everyone is safe.”
In the local vaccination campaign, Guyana is using the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Sputnik V jabs to inoculate people. Some 62,400 doses of Astra Zeneca vaccines have already been delivered through COVAX, with more to arrive in the near future until 20 per cent of the population is covered.
This month, a shipment of Johnson and Johnson vaccines is expected to arrive – a State purchase of 150,000 single-dose vaccines through a partnership agreement between the African Union and the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
From the 400,000 doses of Sputnik V vaccines purchased by Government from Dubai, over 300,000 doses have arrived. Second doses have been arriving in smaller batches owing the rise of variants and surging cases in other parts of the world. The Health Minister had recently said that efforts are in place to secure more second doses soon.
To ensure sufficient supplies, Government has held bilateral discussions with countries, namely India, China, Russia, the US, the EU, Kuwait and the UAE. In addition, Guyana had bilateral talks with manufacturers AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, Sinopharm, Covaxin, Russian Direct Investment Fund. There were discussions with several multilateral organisations, including the Organisation of the Islamic States, the African Union/Caricom initiative and COVAX.
