4 COVID-19 deaths, 70 new cases recorded

The Health Ministry on Friday announced that four more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus have died, hiking the country’s death toll to 333.
For May, 79 individuals have died from the virus.
Latest fatalities are two females from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) – a 39-year-old and a 31-year-old; a 68-year-old male from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and a 74-year-old female from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
Some 70 new cases were detected, and the updated dashboard saw the total confirmed positives moving up to 16,724.
There are 24 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 103 in institutional isolation, 1841 in home isolation and nine in institutional quarantine. Since the pandemic started, 151,268 individuals were tested – of which 8301 males and 8423 females were positive.

New cases
From the new cases, three are from Region One (Barima-Waini); six from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); eight from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 29 from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); two from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); seven from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); five from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 12 from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new positives in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and cases remain at 1211 and 795, respectively.

Vaccines
The Health Ministry recently disclosed that the second dose of the Sputnik V vaccine is unavailable along with the first dose of AstraZeneca/Oxford and Sinopharm vaccines.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony advised during Friday’s COVID-19 update that the delay of second doses for the Sputnik vaccine administration should not alarm the population, since the interval to receive the Sputnik dose can extend up to 12 weeks. As such, those persons will be able to receive their shots within this timeframe when another shipment arrives.
“Initially, the advice we received from the Russian authorities was that second dose, we do it at an interval of four weeks. During this week, they have written to us to say that you can extend that interval from four weeks to up to 12 weeks. So, anytime from four to 12 weeks, you can get that second dose. So, while we’re delayed, everyone who would have received their first dose Sputnik would get their second dose. It wouldn’t happen perhaps on the fourth week interval but certainly you will get it a little bit after.
In Guyana, 194,749 persons have taken the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, or 40 per cent of the adult population. From this figure, 65,534 are completely immunised with both doses. This is approximately 13.5 per cent.
“We’re constantly improving. We’re constantly improving those numbers. With every day as we increase those numbers, we’re taking a step closer to get to herd immunity…If we take it broadly by regions, we still have challenges in Region 10. For first dose vaccination, they’re about 11.6 per cent so there is a marginal increase but not much of an increase.”
In a statement the Ministry went on to say that the Guyana Government is awaiting shipment information, and will advise the public as soon as the Ministry receives the details.
With regards to the other two jabs, the Health Ministry said “AstraZeneca and Sinopharm are no longer available for the first dose. But everyone who has received their first dose will get their second dose. These doses are currently available.” (G12)