…93 new cases recorded
The COVID-19 death toll in Guyana has gone up to 870 after four more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus died.
According to the Health Ministry on Sunday, these latest fatalities include a 44-year-old and 65-year-old male, both of whom are from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) along with a 51-year-old female, also from Region Four, and an 83-year-old woman from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). They all died on October 16 and were unvaccinated at the time of their deaths. 
The Health Ministry said the patients were admitted with COVID-19 like symptoms but died while receiving care at various medical institutions. Samples were taken at the time of their admission which subsequently returned positive tests.
Meanwhile, it was also reported on Sunday that another 93 persons have contracted COVID-19 within a 24-hour period. With this, the total number of confirmed cases in the country has gone up to 34,455.
However, only 3853 of these are currently active cases including 28 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 3825 persons in isolation, that is, 123 in home isolation and 3702 in institutional isolation.
There are also four other persons in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 29,732 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus – 13 more recoveries than the previous day. 
Moreover, 338,451 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus thus far and of this, 16,305 males and 18,150 females were found to be positive.
Of the 93 new cases detected on Sunday, five are from Region One (Barima-Waini), another five cases from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 13 from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a whopping 41 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region, seven cases each from Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), two from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), two more cases from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), and the remaining 11 cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) on Sunday.
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, more than 371,000 persons or over 72.3 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine and in excess of 44 per cent or over 228,000 persons 18 years and older are fully immunised. As it relates to children, more than 26,100 first doses have been administered.
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine provides a layer of protection against severe symptoms of COVID-19.
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.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Sunday, some 239,437,517 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 4,879,235 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Sunday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 91,875,767 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,254,048. (G8)
