Active COVID cases at 972 with 33 new infections

Some 33 more persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus within a 24-hour period, according to the Health Ministry on Sunday.
This now takes the total number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Guyana to 65,892.
Consequently, active cases have gone up to 972 of which two are patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining persons are in isolation, that is, 32 in institutional isolation and the other 938 persons in home isolation.
Additionally, three more persons are currently in institutional quarantine.
The country’s COVID-19 death toll remains at 1239, while the number of recoveries from the life-threatening virus increased to 63,681 – 79 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total 645,092 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this, some 30,285 males and 35,607 females were found to be positive.
Of the 33 new cases recorded on Sunday, eight were from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), four more from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 19 cases from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and the remaining two cases from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
There were no new cases in the other six regions across the country within the reporting 24-hour period.
This declining trend in COVID-19 cases earlier this year had resulted in the Guyana Government, back in March, removing most restrictions as the country moves to recover from the pandemic and return to normalcy.
But while mandates such as masking in public and social distancing are no longer in place, health authorities are still encouraging persons to continue these practices as well as to get vaccinated, and for those who are qualified to get their booster shots, in order to add a layer of protection against the virus.
This plea has been reiterated in recent weeks as authorities observe a rise in COVID-19 cases, which they have attributed to the possible presence of the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron strain here.
Latest figures show that so far, some 442,814 or 86.3 per cent of adults have taken a first dose, while some 342,486 or 66.8 per cent of persons 18 years and over are fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, just over 34,800 or 47.7 per cent of them have received their first dose and of that, some 25,500 of them got a second shot.
In terms of booster shots, in excess of 66,000 persons have returned for their third dose thus far and some are even going for a second booster.
“We’re getting a few people who are coming but generally we would like to see more people come for their booster doses because we’ve done relatively well with the primary doses… We’re now seeing persons coming for their second booster dose,” Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony said last week.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, the Health Ministry rolled out vaccination for children aged 5 to 11. During that exercise, some 153 first doses of the Pfizer jab were administered to young children.
Also at the vaccine drive, 17 first doses and six second doses were given out to adolescents who turned up at the event. Some 28 booster shots were also administered to that age cohort on Saturday. For adults, two booster shots were distributed.
According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent figures, some 532,201,219 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,305,358 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 158,983,746 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,748,938.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, WHO also reported that a total of 11,854,673,610 doses have been administered worldwide.