6-month-old baby dies from COVID

…45 new cases recorded

The Health Ministry on Tuesday reported that a six-month-old baby boy from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) died from COVID-19 on May 21, 2022. This has now taken the death toll to 1232.
Accompanying the increased death toll were 45 new cases, thus taking the positives to 64,342. This accounts for 29,597 males and 34,745 females after 621,985 tests were conducted.
New statistics provided by the Ministry showed that four persons are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 22 in institutional isolation, 515 in home isolation and four in institutional quarantine. Meanwhile, 62,569 persons have recovered.
A breakdown of the new cases showed that three were from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 13 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); three in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); 11 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); one in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and four in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
In Guyana, most recent vaccination figures indicate that over 441,000 first doses and 340,500 second doses were distributed to adults. This is approximately 86 per cent and 66.4 per cent, respectively. For children aged 12 to 17, more than 25,000 or 34.7 per cent are completely vaccinated. Booster coverage has surpassed 63,000. These numbers have been stagnant within the past weeks, as authorities urge Guyanese to get boosted.
The response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a principal focus of interventions by the highest health authorities of the Region of the Americas at the 75th World Health Assembly, which runs until May 29 in Geneva, Switzerland, under the theme Health for Peace, Peace for Health.
Brazil’s Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, highlighted the actions taken by his Government since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic to “save lives, preserve them, reconcile economic balance with social justice.”
For Queiroga, strengthening national health systems is the fundamental pillar to face future health emergencies. “Brazil has one of the best systems of universal access to health in the world,” he said, adding that during the pandemic his country invested “more than $110 million dollars to triple surveillance capacity and expand primary and specialised healthcare.”
Meanwhile, Minister of Public Health of Cuba, José Angel Portal Miranda, said that the control of COVID-19 in his country has been possible “because it has a social justice system that puts the human being at the centre of its policies, an organised society with popular participation, along with the existence of science and health systems at the service of the nation.”
Minister of Public Health and Social Welfare of Paraguay, Julio Borda noted that “the demands and needs were the greatest in the history of public health, with difficulties in equitable and timely access to COVID-19 vaccines, as well as to necessary supplies and medicines.”
Global figures show that almost 523.6 million people have tested positive for the virus and 6.2 million have died. In the Americas, more than 155 million confirmed cases have been reported with over 2.7 million deaths.