4 COVID-19 deaths, 153 new cases recorded

…vaccination hours in Georgetown to be extended to 8pm – Dr Anthony

Four more persons who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) have died, the Ministry of Health reported on Wednesday.
With these deaths, the total number of fatalities from the pandemic has gone up to 349.
All four fatalities are males, with the youngest being a 37-year-old resident of Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), who died on Tuesday. On that day, a 50-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) also died from the virus.
The other two COVID-19 deaths are a 73-year-old male from Region Four, who died on Monday, and a 54-year-old man from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who died on Sunday.
These patients had been admitted to medical institutions with COVID-like symptoms, and died while receiving care. Samples taken at the time of their admission subsequently returned positive tests, the Ministry has said.
Since outbreak of the pandemic here in Guyana last year, April was recorded as the deadliest month with 66 fatalities. May, however, has already recorded 50 deaths as more persons with the virus are succumbing to complications caused by COVID-19.
Prior to these four deaths, the last fatality was a 56-year-old male from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) who died on Monday while receiving care at a medical facility.

New cases
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also reported on Wednesday that 153 more persons have tested positive for COVID-19 from some 956 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
This now takes the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 15,607 – 7,791 males and 7,816 males.
However, only 1,899 of these are currently active cases. This includes 16 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 1,883 persons in isolation; that is, 106 in institutional isolation and the other 1,777 in home isolation.
Additionally, there are six persons in institutional quarantine.
Some 13,359 persons have to date recovered from the novel coronavirus in the country – 107 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Of the 153 new cases recorded on Wednesday, three were detected in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 36 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 55 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), seven in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 10 in Region Six (East Berbice -Corentyne), 16 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), eight in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 18 in Region Ten (Upper Demerara–Berbice).
The figures remain unchanged in Regions One (Barima-Waini) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).

Vaccination
The Government continues to aggressively roll out its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, and efforts are being ramped up to allow more persons to get immunised against the novel coronavirus. It is against this backdrop that Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony disclosed during Wednesday’s update that the vaccination hours in Georgetown would be extended from this coming weekend to 8pm or 20:00h.
“We’ll start that as an experiment to see whether or not we’ll get more people coming out. But we don’t want people to wait (so late) and the place is vacant the whole day, nobody is coming out, and then you wait till the evenings and you have a crowd. If these centres are working from eight in the morning, we want people to start coming out from eight in the morning. If you come early and there isn’t a crowd, it doesn’t take long,” Dr Anthony noted.
Further, he outlined the importance of taking the vaccines, and encouraged persons to do so as soon as possible, even if it means taking time off from work.
“In the long run, this is going to be better for you, and it is going to benefit the work environment as well, because if everybody in the work environment is vaccinated, then that offers a protective effect in that particular workspace. So, I really want to urge people to make this a priority…make sure you come out and get the first dose. If you got the first dose, check your vaccination card and ensure that you understand when you’re due for your second dose, and come get your second dose,” the Minister implored.
On this note, Dr Anthony also urged persons who missed the date for their second dose to get it as soon as possible, and not wait any longer, in order to maintain the efficacy of the jab.
“What happens with the first dose (is that) it stimulates your immune system, and your body starts producing antibodies after about the 7th day after receiving the shot. About 7 days after, your body starts getting a lot of antibodies, and the level of antibodies would be high enough by the 7th day… If you don’t come in that timeframe, what normally would happen is that the antibody peaks to a level, not its optimum, and then remains there for a while, and then would wane. If you get both doses, it would go higher and stay high for a longer time. So, the response is more robust and you’ll be more protected,” he stated.
As at Tuesday, some 172,311 persons received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, while 38,467 of those are now fully vaccinated with both doses.
However, the Health Minister noted that while Region Six continues to lead with the highest number of first dose vaccination, Region 10 is still lagging behind, which is concerning since there are some 147 active cases in the region, which also recently recorded a COVID fatality.