…100,000 Sinopharm vaccines due to arrive this week
Deaths from the novel coronavirus in June have raced to 466, with four more fatalities reported as of Monday.
The Health Ministry informed that the latest fatalities are a 65-year-old woman from Region Four who died on June 24; a 64-year-old-woman from Region Four and 49-year-old man from Region Three who died on June 26; and a 73-year-old man from Region Four who died on June 27.
Another 14 new cases were also recorded, propelling the total confirmed cases to 19,891. There are 15 patients seeking treatment in the Intensive Care Unit, 87 in institutional isolation, 1539 in home isolation and three in institutional quarantine. In total, 17,784 persons recovered completely.
Since the pandemic started, 185,647 individuals were tested – of which 9707 males and 10,184 females were positive.
New cases spanned across five administrative regions, with two in Region One (Barima-Waini), one in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), seven in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), two in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and two in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
No new cases were detected in Regions Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
In recovered COVID-19 patients, the Health Ministry is monitoring for cases where complications may arise and affect several organs, as detected in other countries in both children and adults.
During Monday’s COVID-19 update, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony indicated that post-COVID symptoms are common among recovered patients, whereby symptoms associated with the virus can linger for months. However, every person might experience different complications.
He outlined that the respiratory system is not the only one to be affected, but the virus is shown to cause difficulties in other organs.
“Some patients would have experienced some blood disorder and maybe after a month of the six-month period, they start presenting some form of clotting disorder. That’s something that we have to look out for as well. Some of them present with what is called thromboembolic events… Other patients would have signs and symptoms consistent with heart disease. This would include chest pains, laboured breathing, palpitations, fast heartbeats,” he detailed.
Another area under close attention is neuropsychiatric symptoms; which include people experiencing fatigue and consistent headaches. Others have cognitive impairment, meaning that they have difficulty rationalising things.
Meanwhile, the Minister added, “We also have patients presenting with changes in their renal system, their kidneys. That is another area that we have to do test and to manage. With the endocrine system, we have seen some people who had diabetes and if they get COVID, it is more difficult to manage the diabetes and, in some cases, persons without diabetes after COVID can start presenting with symptoms of diabetes.”
While there have been no cases of children developing these post-COVID complications, he cautioned that it has been detected in other countries. Hence, monitoring will be in effect.
“There are cases where children who have been infected can present with multiple system inflammatory syndrome and we haven’t seen any cases here but it is something that we have to look out for. Even if you get COVID and you get the mild to moderate forms, you can later on present with these types of symptoms because this set of symptoms have been seen with patients in other countries and we are not going to be an exception.”
Vaccination
In Guyana, 231,766 persons or 47.6 per cent of the adult population have been vaccinated with first doses while 106,344 persons or 21.8 per cent are completely inoculated.
Regional first doses show 59.3 per cent for Region One, 43.5 in Region Two, 46.9 per cent in Region Three, 49.1 per cent in Region Four, 50.1 per cent in Region Five, 55.6 per cent in Region Six, 47.5 per cent in Region Seven, 32.2 per cent in Region Eight, 46 per cent in Region Nine and 14.6 per cent in Region 10.
In terms of second doses, the breakdown shows 21.8 per cent for Region One, 22.2 in Region Two, 20.2 per cent in Region Three, 24.6 per cent in Region Four, 23.3 per cent in Region Five, 23 per cent in Region Six, 18.5 per cent in Region Seven, 12.3 per cent in Region Eight, 17.6 per cent in Region Nine and six per cent in Region 10.
The Ministry is currently awaiting the arrival of Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Johnson and Johnson; and AstraZeneca vaccines from several sources. Engagements are ongoing to have them delivered at the earliest.
“We’re hoping that we’ll get the 100,000 doses that we’ve purchased from Sinopharm. Those vaccines are due sometime this week, so we’re working with the shipper to make sure that we get these vaccines in…Those we’re waiting on the estimated time of arrival from the African Union platform. We have been in discussions with them but we don’t have a final date as yet. Similarly, we’re working with COVAX to get a date for the shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccines but so far, we haven’t received anything.” (G12)
