– 64 new cases recorded in 24h
…surveillance network monitoring Brazilian border for infiltration
The Health Minister on Tuesday reported that four other persons have succumbed to COVID-19, taking the death toll to a staggering 220. With the two recent deaths, 23 persons have died from the virus for the month of March thus far.
The latest deaths are a 74-year-old female from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); an 82-year-old male from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and two males – 50-year-old and 48-year-old from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
The Bartica resident reportedly died at his house but upon his arrival at the Bartica Regional Hospital, a swab test that was done on him revealed that he was positive.
On Sunday, a 69-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) was the last person to fall victim to the life-threatening disease.
However, from 829 swabs that were taken for analysis on Tuesday, 64 returned positive. This has now taken the positive cases to 9668 – 4947 males and 4721 females.
The new statistics released by the Health Ministry revealed that 11 persons remain in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 63 in institutional isolation, 856 in home isolation and 11 in institutional quarantine. Guyana has tested 82,539 persons thus far. Some 8522 have since recovered.
Of the new cases, one was reported in Region One (Barima-Waini); 17 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 20 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); five in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); 20 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and one in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The cases in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remain at 248, 274, 246 and 438 respectively.
Meanwhile, an overwhelmed health system in Brazil due to the coronavirus has sparked concerns for local authorities, and a surveillance network has been actively scanning the porous border for any infiltration.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday stated that Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) are areas of concern, given their proximity to the Portuguese-speaking country.
“Those two regions are a bit of concern of their proximity to Brazil and sometimes, you have people coming across from Brazil who might not come through the official channel so there is no way of knowing whether they have crossed over into Guyana. That’s something that we have to keep monitoring,” Dr Anthony shared.
For now, the surveillance network used to detect illegal crossings will deter anyone from entering. Resources for testing are also available to determine if anyone is positive since the P1 variant has been circulating in Brazil.
“We have set up surveillance network in the Rupununi and Region Eight to detect any person that would cross and based on that, to also offer testing to them so we can detect whether or not people are coming over, if they’re positive and so forth. That type of monitoring is going to continue because we’re also trying to monitor to reduce the number of persons crossing. We know the challenge Brazil is currently experiencing with the P1 variant and certainly, we would like to reduce that kind of influx of people coming across the border.”
Over 12 million cases were recorded in Brazil with almost 300,000 deaths.
