Increased hospitalisation of partially-vaccinated COVID patients recorded – Health Ministry

The Health Ministry has recorded an increase in hospitalisation for persons who would have taken one dose of the COVID-19 vaccines against the deadly virus.
This was reported on Tuesday by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony who stated that 164 persons are hospitalised across the country. There are 84 at the Infectious Diseases Hospital on the East Coast of Demerara – 30 of which are in the Intensive Care Unit.
The remaining cases are dispersed at regional hospitals at Port Kaituma, Suddie, West Demerara, Mahaicony, Skeldon, New Amsterdam, Bartica, Mahdia and Wismar. The Minister has long contended that one dose of the vaccine does not offer full protection.

“As cases would go up in the general population, we’ll see that we’re also going to get more hospitalised, especially among persons who did not take the vaccine. We have seen an increase in hospitalisation among the unvaccinated or the partially vaccinated,” Dr Anthony outlined.
At the specialised facility, he said there is a full complement of nurses with over 55 doctors to monitor patients. He lauded the work of these health workers, highlighting that many persons are admitted in critical condition.
“They care for approximately 120 patients on average. We do have physiotherapy staff that would go in to work with those people who are recovering. They’re different level of staff for different categories of people. I think they have been doing a tremendous job because a lot of the persons who come to that facility are really sick, especially those that require ICU care.”
Presently, there is a mechanism in place to update relatives on the status of patients at the facility. He noted that it is important for families to understand that the Ministry cannot inform several relatives of the same person, owing to the number of patients. As such, they should liaison with the person receiving such information.
The Minister verbalised, “I think there are lots of expectations from some people, meaning that one of the complaints we have been getting is that people, when they try to make contact with their relatives, they sometimes don’t get through. We have assigned a staff to reach out to the patients who are there but I hope the public can understand that for each patient, we cannot call five different relatives. When a patient comes in, we ask them who’s their preferred point of contact and we will call and update that person.”
Meanwhile, a significant bracket of patients is also in home isolation. Once tested positive, these persons are under isolation for 10 days and if they test negative after, they will be discharged. With this arrangement, the health official said responsibility is important to prevent a spread.
“Some persons observe it in a strict manner. Others don’t. if they’re not observing it, we can easily have more spread. If people are irresponsible and don’t abide by the rules, then we’ll have an increase in spread. We also do have institutional isolation and, in some regions, people prefer to come into those institutions.”
Vaccination numbers in Guyana show an uptake of 348,534 or 67.9 per cent first dose with 179,965 or 35.1 per cent second doses. Adolescent figures stand at 20,896 or 28.7 per cent.
It has been reported that over 80,000 persons are waiting to be inoculated with the second dose of the Russian manufactured Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine – which is in short supply globally.
However, the AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines are available in both doses; while the Johnson & Johnson is a single jab component.