4 more die from COVID-19, death toll now 247

…active cases surpass 1000

COVID-19 deaths continue to rise in Guyana, with four more persons succumbing to the life-threatening virus as of Sunday. This takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 247.
The Health Ministry on Monday reported that a 73-year-old female from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), a 59-year-old man from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); a 44-year-old man from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and a 67-year-old female from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) succumbed. They all died while receiving care at medical facilities.
In total, 14 persons have succumbed to the virus for the month of April thus far – an alarming start as one week is yet to be completed.
Nevertheless, 26 new cases were recorded on Sunday from 316 samples that were sent for testing. According to new statistics released by the Ministry, the total number of confirmed cases in the country is now 10,606 – 5408 males and 5198 females.
There are 1071 active cases: 14 in the designated Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 985 in home isolation and 72 in institutional isolation. Another 12 persons are also in institutional quarantine. The data showed that 9289 patients have recovered from the life-threatening virus while 93,761 have been tested.
From the new cases, four were detected in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), seven in Region Four; seven in Region Five (Demerara-Mahaica); one in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); two in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and five in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The cases in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remain at 1028, 264, 247 and 441 respectively.
Meanwhile, Guyana has been steadfast in rolling out its vaccination campaign. According to the Health Ministry on Sunday, since the exercise commenced in February some 40,468 COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across the country including several second doses.
Last week, Guyana surpassed 3000 vaccinations in a day on three occasions. The highest number of vaccinations were recorded in the three largest populated regions – Demerara-Mahaica, East Berbice-Corentyne and Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, respectively.
The least numbers were recorded in Region Eight, followed by Region 10 and Region Nine. Only these three regions have recorded less than 1000 vaccinations so far.
Nevertheless, the Ministry is looking to ramp up the vaccine rollout and has set a target of 40,000 first dose jabs to be administered along with several hundreds of the second dose. As such, more than 100 fixed-site and mobile teams will be administering first and second dose vaccines starting today, Tuesday, April 6.
Persons who are 40 years and older are eligible to receive the jab. These include all health workers, teachers, members of the Joint Services, public servants as well as Private Sector employees.