44 new COVID-19 cases recorded

44 new COVID-19 cases recorded

As increased testing for the novel coronavirus continues countrywide, another 44 cases have been recorded in the last 24 hours.
This is according to the Ministry of Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard on Saturday.
The total number of cases in Guyana is now 925, of which 457 are males and the remaining 468 are females.
However, only 85 of these cases are active, with 74 in institutional isolation while the other 11 cases are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). This represents an increase of three cases in the ICU.
An additional 383 persons are currently in home isolation, while there are 79 persons in institutional quarantine.
Meanwhile, the COVID-19 death toll and the number of recovered cases are 31 and 426, respectively.
To date, a total of 6760 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Guyana, of which 4371 are negative.
From August 15 to 20, 218 new cases were reported, coming mainly from Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice). The first case in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) was reported last week while there have been sporadic cases in Regions One (Barima-Waini) and Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
According to Saturday’s COVID-19 dashboard, Region One now has 132 cases; Region Two has seven cases; Region Three has 51 cases; Region Four has 297 cases; Region Five has two cases; Region Six has nine cases; Region Seven has 179 cases; Region Eight has 12 cases; Region Nine has 171 cases, and Region 10 has 65 cases.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), there are over 22.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide, while the global death toll is more than 795,000.
In the region of the Americas, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases has exceeded 12.1 million, and the COVID-19 death toll has surpassed 434,000.
On Friday, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud lamented the fact that the number of cases continues to spike in the country.
“As you can see from the data over the last week, COVID-19 remains a threat to everyone in all areas of Guyana. Within the last few days, we have noted a lot of concerns about the testing and laboratory confirmation of COVID-19. I would like to assure members of the public that the tests conducted by the National Public Health Reference Laboratory is the WHO-recommended molecular PCR test for the coronavirus,” the CMO stated.
Dr Shamdeo said that antibody rapid tests are available, which may indicate that someone was exposed to the virus but is not recommended to diagnose the infection. However, he set the record straight that these procedures should not be compared, since only the PCR is used to detect positive cases.
“Please desist from comparing these two distinctively different methods of testing since the rapid antibody test is not approved to diagnose active COVID-19 case and only the molecular PCR can credibly identify infectious persons,” he noted.
Over the past week, the CMO said the momentum to wear a mask has increased significantly and should be continued as Guyana seeks to eradicate the virus locally. (G8)