Seven more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died, according to the Ministry of Health on Sunday.
These latest fatalities include an 85-year-old man, who died on October 24; a 74-year-old man, who died on October 19, and an 81-year-old male, who died on October 26 – all of whom are from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara).
Additionally, two other males, aged 79 and 80, both from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) along with another 79-year-old male from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and the lone female, a 57-year-old from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), all died on October 30.
With the exception of the 81-year-old man, who was partially vaccinated, all the other victims were unvaccinated.
According to the Health Ministry, these patients were admitted with COVID-19 like symptoms but died while receiving care at medical institutions across the country. Samples were taken at the time of their admission which subsequently returned positive tests.
These seven fatalities have taken the total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana to 920. The COVID-19 death toll for the month of October has now increased to 121.
Meanwhile, 73 new COVID-19 cases have been detected within a 24-hour period from 899 tests conducted.
This now takes total number of confirmed cases in the country to 35,621. However, only 2894 of these are currently active cases including 15 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 2879 persons in isolation, that is, 60 in institutional isolation and the other 2819 in home isolation.
There are also five other persons in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 31,807 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease – 12 more recoveries than the figure previously reported.
Moreover, 355,129 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus thus far and of this, 16,840 males and 18,781 females were found to be positive.
Of the 73 new cases detected on Sunday, 11 are from Region Three, 24 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region, one from Region Five, 17 cases from the East Berbice-Corentyne region, five from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), another three cases from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and the remaining 12 cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) on Sunday.
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 and reduce the number of COVID-19 infections.
So far, over 381,000 persons or 74.3 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine and approximately 47.2 per cent or more than 242,300 persons who are 18 years and older are fully immunised.
As it relates to adolescents, some 27,276 children between the ages of 12 to 17 have been administered first doses, of which 18,058 are fully vaccinated.
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 245,373,039 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 4,979,421 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 93,368,055 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,289,336. (G8)
