6 new COVID-19 infections, 379 active cases

The Health Ministry reported on Sunday that six more persons have been confirmed positive for the novel coronavirus disease from 151 tests conducted within a 24-hour period.
Consequently, there are now 70,809 confirmed cases in the country. However, only 379 of these are currently active cases, and those are: two patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining persons in isolation – 364 in home isolation and 13 in institutional isolation. Two other persons are also in institutional quarantine, according to the Ministry’s updated COVID-19 Dashboard.
However, Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 1,278, while some 69,152 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total of 685,038 tests have been conducted countrywide; and of this amount, some 32,448 males and 38,361 females were found to be positive.
Of the six new cases recorded on Sunday, one was from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), four were from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), and the remaining case was from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). No new cases were recorded in the other seven regions across the country within the reporting 24-hour period.
After a prolonged period of declining cases, the Guyana Government, back in March, had removed most restrictions as the country moved to recover from the pandemic and return to normalcy. But, in recent weeks, there has been a spike in COVID cases here, which health authorities have attributed to subvariants of the Omicron strain, such as the BA.5. To this end, health authorities are urging persons to get vaccinated, and for those so qualified, to get their booster shots.
The latest vaccination numbers show that, so far, more than 445,600 persons, or 86.9 per cent of adults, have taken a first dose; while over 345,300 persons, or 67.3 per cent of adults, have received a second dose.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, just over 35,500 persons, or 48.7 per cent of adolescents, have received a first dose. Second doses for this age cohort stand in excess of 26,000, or 35.7 per cent.
Vaccines are also being administered to children aged five to 11 years, and so far, over 7,500 of those persons, or 7.4 per cent, have taken a first dose, while more than 2,700, or 2.7 per cent, have returned for their second jab.
Meanwhile, in excess of 72,000 persons have returned for their first booster dose.
According to the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) recent figures, some 591,683,619 confirmed cases were reported globally, along with 6,443,306 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas; that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 173,998,701, while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,806,324.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, WHO also reported that a total of 12,409,086,286 doses have been administered worldwide.