– 101 new cases recorded in 24h
— national curfew extended to April 30, 2021
Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has gone up to 271 as three more men who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died. 
These latest fatalities are a 69-year-old male from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), an 80-year-old from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and a 62-year-old man from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica). They all died on Saturday while receiving care at medical facilities.
With these, the total number of COVID-19 deaths thus far for the month of April is 28, of which 15 were recorded last week alone. The most recent fatality was recorded on Friday when an 81-year-old female from Region Four died.
Meanwhile, some 101 new COVID-19 cases were detected in the last 24 hours.
According to new statistics provided by the Health Ministry on Sunday, the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana has skyrocketed to 11,863 – 6002 males and 5861 females.
However, a whopping 1412 of these are currently active cases. These include 12 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 1400 persons in isolation, that is, 74 in institutional isolation and the remaining 1326 in home isolation.
There are also 15 persons in institutional quarantine.
Further, the number of persons who have recovered from the life-threatening disease in the country to date has increased to 10,180 – 19 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
A total of 107,974 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Guyana since March 2020.
Of the 101 new cases recorded on Sunday, one was detected in Region One (Barima-Waini); two in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); 10 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a whopping 57 cases in the Demerara-Mahaica region; four in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); another two cases in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); 5 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); 18 in Region Nine (Upper Essequibo-Takutu) and the remaining two cases in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Upper Berbice).
The figure in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) remained the same.
The rising number of COVID-19 cases and death toll comes as local authorities continue to battle with a new wave of the novel coronavirus that is seeing a higher number of young people contracting the virus, and infected persons becoming sicker with some requiring hospitalisation.
In order to curb the spread of the virus and reduce the country’s death toll from the pandemic, Guyana rolled out its vaccination campaign in February and has thus far inoculated more than 70,000 persons. Additionally, several hundred persons have also received their second-dose shots.
Only Friday, Government extended the vaccination exercise to persons 18 years and older. Since then, scores of young persons have been flocking vaccination sites across the country to get immunised.
Thus far, Guyana has received 3000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines from Barbados, another 80,000 doses of the same jab from India and 20,000 doses of Sinopharm from China – all donations.
The country subsequently collected its first tranche of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility – 24,000 doses of AstraZeneca and another batch is expected to arrive next month.
Further, Government has purchased 200,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine from Russia to the tune of some US$4 million, through the UAE. Of these, Guyana has already received 55,000 doses of the Russian-made jab and another 83,000 is slated to arrive early this week.
Meanwhile, health authorities are reminding all Guyanese to observe the protocols of the COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No 16), which was extended for this month and will be in effect until April 30, 2021.
Among these measures is the 22:30h (10:30 pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew, which the National COVID-19 Taskforce reminded in a statement on Sunday remains intact and cautioned that those who fail to adhere to the guidelines will be prosecuted.
It also reinforced that only essential services are authorised to operate on a 24-hour basis and that other services and businesses are required to close operations by 21:30h (09:30 pm) in order to facilitate workers getting home by the curfew time.
Restaurants and places of worship have been approved to operate at 40 per cent capacity. Gyms are to operate at 50 per cent capacity while sporting events are only permitted with approval from the Health Minister.
The order further emphasises the need for correct and consistent use of a face mask when leaving home; the importance of maintaining the six feet physical distance from others, and the need for good hand hygiene to help reduce the spread of COVID-19.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Sunday, some 140,322,903 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 3,003,794 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Sunday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 59,550,930 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 1,444,736.
