65 new COVID-19 cases recorded across 6 regions

…423 new cases, 10 deaths in 1 week

A whopping 423 COVID-19 cases were recorded over the course of the week – 65 of which were detected on Saturday.
The statistics provided by the Health Ministry showed that new cases emerged from 665 swab samples that were sent for analysis. To date, there are 10,072 recorded confirmed cases in the country. From the 5149 males and 4923 females that contracted the virus thus far, 8842 have completely recovered. Guyana has managed to test 87,181 people since the virus was detected locally.
Apart from the 225 deaths, there are 13 patients in the designated Intensive Care Unit with 52 persons in institutional isolation, 992 in home isolation and 19 in institutional quarantine. Active cases have now surpassed 1000.

New cases
A breakdown showed that new cases were recorded in six administrative regions; with three in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) seven in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 45 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), two in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), six in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and two in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The cases in Region One (Barima-Waini), Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remain at 1028, 278, 246 and 440 respectively.
President Irfaan Ali on Friday disclosed that the country is buying some 200,000 doses of the Russian manufactured Sputnik V vaccines to the tune of a whopping US$4 million. He explained that Guyana is paying US$20 per dose of the Russian vaccine. But according to the President, Government cannot put a price tag on the health of the citizenry.
“It’s very expensive but it is an expense that we can’t spare. The health of the population is very critical. This will call for some adjustments in the budget and so on, but, as I said we are not sparing any expenses on this. We are working on making the resources available to ensure every single Guyanese are vaccinated,” the Guyanese leader asserted.
In addition to the 200,000 Sputnik doses, Guyana is also expecting its first tranche from the COVAX facility next week. Initially, Guyana was slated to receive 100,800 vaccines in its first collection from COVAX – a body of organisations including the World Health Organisation (WHO) that was established to ensure there is equal access to and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
However, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony disclosed on Monday that COVAX has significantly reduced that figure to now 24,000 doses for several countries in the region including Guyana.
However, the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has said that the remainder of the initial 100,000-plus vaccines will arrive here in May. Unlike the massive bill for the Sputnik jabs, the COVAX batch will be given to Guyana free of cost.
To date, Guyana has received 3000 doses of AstraZeneca were from Barbados and another 80,000 doses of the same jab were from India. China also delivered 20,000 of its locally manufactured Sinopharm vaccines.
The vaccination campaign started with frontline health workers and then extended to persons 60 years and older.
In the meanwhile, President Ali on Friday reassured that his Government will spare no expense in ensuring that its citizens are protected against the novel coronavirus. But in the same breath, he implored citizens to continues to adhere to the COVID-19 guidelines especially after getting vaccinated. (G12)