Active cases at 85 after 3 new COVID-19 infections

Three more persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus within a 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry on Sunday.
Consequently, active cases in Guyana are at 85, including 79 persons in home isolation and the remaining six persons in institutional isolation.
Additionally, there are five other persons currently in institutional quarantine, while there are no patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Meanwhile, Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 1281 with the latest fatality recorded on September 15 after an 88-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) died as a result of the virus. This is one of three COVID-19 fatalities recorded thus far this month.
In addition, some 69,946 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 694,584 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this, some 32,682 males and 38,633 females were found to be positive.
Of the three new cases recorded on Sunday, one case each was detected in Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), and Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
There were no new cases recorded in the other seven regions across the country within the reporting 24-hour period.
Back in March, the Guyana Government removed most restrictions as the country recovers from the pandemic and returns to normalcy.
Nevertheless, health authorities continue to urge persons to get vaccinated and for those qualified to get their booster shots as an added layer of protection against the virus.
The latest vaccination figures show that so far, more than 446,000 adults, or 81.1 per cent have taken the first dose while over 346,000 or 67.6 per cent of persons 18 years and older are fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, about 35,000 or 49 per cent of them have received first doses and of that amount, some 26,000 or 36 per cent received a second dose.
Vaccines are also being administered to children in the five to 11 category and so far, over 8000 or 8.2 per cent have gotten a first dose, while only about 4000 or 4.2 per cent of this cohort have returned for the second dose.
Moreover, in excess of 73,900 booster shots were taken to date by the various age groups.
According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent figures, some 611,421,786 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,512,438 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 177,751,530 while the death toll in the Region has gone up to 2,832,645.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, the WHO also reported that a total of 12,640,866,343 doses have been administered worldwide.