4 COVID-19 fatalities raise May’s death toll to 90

…42 new cases, 23 in ICU

May has ended with 90 coronavirus fatalities – four of which were reported on Monday. Guyana has since recorded 389 deaths from the novel virus since the start of the pandemic.
This is the highest number of deaths to be reported in one month locally, with April taking second place with 66 deaths. In two months, there have been a whopping 156 reported deaths in the country.
The Health Ministry announced the latest fatalities as an 81-year-old male from Region 10, an 83-year-old female from Region Four and a 30-year-old male from Region Nine, all of whom died on Saturday. The fourth person to succumb is a 65-year-old male from Region Three, who died later on Sunday.
Previously on Sunday, three deaths from Region Four were announced; namely a 58-year-old and 71-year-old female; and a 65-year-old male.

New cases
Monday’s dashboard showed an increase of 42 new cases in one day. The total confirmed cases in the country have now increased to 16,952. There are 23 patients in the Intensive Care Unit, 102 in institutional isolation, 1916 in home isolation and nine in institutional quarantine.
Some 14,552 of the 8399 males and 8553 females that tested positive have since recovered. Guyana has tested 153,989 persons since the virus was detected here.
An analysis of new cases showed two cases from Region One (Barima-Waini), two in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 11 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), 22 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), two in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and three in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Cases remained the same in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) at 468, 578, 365 and 811 respectively.
According to Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, Guyana is actively trying to ensure that hospitalised cases are managed adequately to enable more recoveries.
“We continue to manage the patients as best as we can. As you know, 80 per cent of the persons who are infected with COVID would not be hospitalised. For those persons who come to the hospital, we normally would evaluate them. Those who need ventilatory support or other forms of respiratory support, we’re able to give that to them. Of course, there are medications that you can use. We have been working hard to make sure that we have more persons recovering from hospitalisation,” Dr Anthony explained.
Guyana currently has over 2000 active cases of the coronavirus, spanning health facilities across the country and at the specialised Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara. Management of such cases, he said, can be challenging.
“We currently have 2041 active cases and of those, we have 104 right now in hospital with 23 in the ICU. Of those in the ICU, we have four patients on ventilators. It is a challenging task to manage those persons that we have in hospital. They’re not just at Ocean View, but they’re also at various regional hospitals. The medical staff have been working very hard to assist people to survive the disease.” (G12)