Active COVID-19 cases surge to 1118

…86 new positives, 14 in ICU

Guyana’s active coronavirus cases are now at 1118, after 86 new positives were detected within the course of one day.
Saturday’s dashboard saw the overall positives rising to 11,044 – 5624 males and 5420 females. The number of deaths remained at 252.
Some 14 patients are seeking treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), while 71 are in institutional isolation, 1033 in home isolation and 14 in institutional quarantine. The country has seen 9688 recoveries and 98,199 individuals were tested thus far.
Of the new positives, one was from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 30 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 55 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), four in Region Five (Demerara-Mahaica), three in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and eight in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There total cases in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) remain at 1028, 966, 247, and 449 respectively.
If Guyana does not attain herd immunity, then a large fraction of the population would remain vulnerable to COVID-19. This was the position shared by Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony, during the latest coronavirus update.
“If we don’t achieve herd immunity, it means that the Guyana population would still remain vulnerable to COVID. When we talk about herd immunity, we mean that a substantial part of the population would have received immunisation so even if there is infection, this infection would not spread. It would be contained because a lot of people would have some form of immunity to fight off the disease,” the Minister outlined.
Herd immunity involves immunising a significant portion of the population to contain the virus from widespread infections. While none of the vaccines developed thus far offers 100 per cent protection, the efficacy is significantly high.
He explained, “There is still that possibility that people being fully immunised would have a little chance of getting infected but it would be severely reduced because you’re now fully vaccinated. What these vaccines have done is that if you’re fully vaccinated, then it prevents you from getting the more severe form of the disease.”
This week, health authorities expressed concern over the increasing number of COVID-19 cases in Guyana, many of which are young people as well as persons who are getting sicker and require hospitalisations.
According to the Health Minister, these increasing cases are more prevalent in Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni). He was unable to say whether there is a new COVID-19 variant in the country that is resulting in these people becoming sicker and more younger people becoming infected with the virus.
Previously, Guyana had sent 10 samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and after completing the gene sequencing in February this year, the results showed that were no traces of new variants of COVID-19.
However, since then no other testing was done but Minister Anthony said they are hoping to send another set of samples soon for analysis. (G12)