32 new COVID cases recorded in 24h

The Health Ministry on Saturday related that 32 new COVID cases have been recorded as positives slowly continue to rise. Now, the total confirmed cases are 63,804 – 29,373 males and 34,431 females.
New statistics showed that the deaths have remained at 1228 while two patients are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), seven in institutional isolation and 266 in home isolation. Another person is being monitored in institutional quarantine.
Guyana has conducted 610,906 tests thus far, of which 62,301 positive patients have recovered.
On Friday, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony pointed out that the different subvariants of Omicron have been circulating, as he pointed out the rise in infections locally. Following January’s wave of about 20,000 cases, linked to the BA.1 strain, authorities have concluded that the new spike could be linked to the BA.2 subvariant causing local infections. Presently, active cases have surpassed 250.
“One of the new subvariants is BA.2, which is now becoming very dominant globally. You’re seeing more countries in Europe, the Americas, having a BA.2 subvariant that is circulating…I think because we have such close contact with the US and other countries, eventually we would have those cases coming here as well. Maybe this new increase in cases is perhaps being fuelled by a BA.2 subvariant,” the Health Minister had pointed out.
In conjunction with close monitoring, he informed that samples would be sent for genomic sequencing to determine definitely which variant is circulating here. Authorities are also examining the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, which has shown higher transmissibility.
A breakdown shows three new infections in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 20 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), four in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), two in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), and three in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).