…118 new infections recorded
The Health Ministry on Wednesday reported that four more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have died.
The latest fatalities include a 63-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who was fully vaccinated, but succumbed to the virus on Wednesday. Additionally, a 68-year-old female from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, who was partially vaccinated; an 89-year-old male from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), who was unvaccinated and a 51-year-old female from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who was also unvaccinated, died on Tuesday from COVID-19. 
According to the Health Ministry, these patients were admitted with COVID-19-like symptoms, and died while receiving care at medical institutions across the country. Samples taken at the time of their admission subsequently returned positive results.
With these fatalities, the total number of deaths from the virus in Guyana has now gone up to 881.
Meanwhile, the Ministry’s updated COVID-19 dashboard for Wednesday showed that another 118 persons tested positive for the deadly virus within the previous 24-hour period.
The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now 34,726. But only 3639 of these are currently active cases, including 23 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The remaining 3616 persons are in isolation – 113 in institutional isolation and the remaining 3503 persons in home isolation.
Another seven persons are in institutional quarantine.
In addition to the 23 persons in the ICU, there are a total of 63 persons hospitalised at the Oceanview Hospital, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown. Overall, there are 91 hospitalised COVID-19 cases across the country – three of whom are pregnant women.
So far, some 30,206 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease – 128 more recoveries than the day before.
To date, 342,015 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus and of this, 16,424 males and 18,302 females were found to be positive.
Of the 118 new cases detected on Wednesday, two are from Region One (Barima-Waini), one from Pomeroon-Supenaam, 17 from Region Three, a whopping 52 cases from Demerara-Mahaica, 11 from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 14 cases from East Berbice-Corentyne, another two from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), six cases from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), two more from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining 11 cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
In order to curb the rising number of cases in the country, the Guyana Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercise back in February and continues to roll it out across the various regions in order to achieve herd immunity.
So far, some 374,539 persons or over 73 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine and approximately 45.5 per cent or over 233,391 persons who are 18 years and older are fully immunised.
As it relates to children, more than 26,550 first doses have been administered to the 12 to 17 age group – 36.4 per cent. Some 16,802 or 23 per cent of that age cohort are fully vaccinated.
During his update on the COVID-19 situation in Guyana, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Wednesday pointed out that while the adolescent vaccination drive has seen substantial progress, there is still some work to be done since they are targeting a total of 104,000 of persons within that age category.
“It’s not only in-school youth but out-of-the-school youth,” he posited.
The Health Minister further noted that Government would soon be conducting another exercise that would see officials going to the various regions and communities around the country to get ensure adolescents are inoculated.
Based on figures from the Bureau of Statistics, some 104,000 persons between the ages of 12 and 18 are eligible for vaccination.
“[We want] to make sure that we can get more people who would come out and get these vaccines. Even with the vaccinations we have done so far, we are lagging behind with the second dose. There’s still a lot of people who took a first dose and didn’t come back as yet for a second dose. So, we want to encourage persons to do so because if you’re partially vaccinated, you wouldn’t get the full benefits of the vaccination and therefore, we really want to encourage parents to bring out their children and to get vaccinated,” Dr Anthony stated.
He went on to note if there continued to be a large population of unvaccinated children within the education system, the longer it would take for schools to reopen and for academic activities to return to some level of normalcy.
On this note, the Health Minister reassured that there were sufficient jabs to inoculate the targeted cohort of adolescents.
Nevertheless, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising.
The measures also include vaccination requirements to access any public building such as restaurants, places of worship, schools as well as Government buildings. (G8)
