COVID-19 death toll now at 469 after Region 4 man dies

…96 new cases recorded

Guyana’s death toll from the COVID-19 pandemic has gone up to 469 after another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus died.
This latest fatality is a 52-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who died on Tuesday while receiving care at a medical facility.
With this, the total number of deaths from the pandemic for the month of June has increased to 71. May became the deadliest month with 99 fatalities since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus here last year, after surpassing April’s 66 COVID-19 death toll.
Meanwhile, some 96 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.
This is according to the updated dashboard on Wednesday, which indicated that the total number of confirmed cases has gone up to 20,055.
However, only 1546 of these are currently active cases including 12 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU). The other 1534 persons are in isolation, that is, 94 in institutional isolation and the remaining 1473 person in home isolation.
There are also six more person in institutional quarantine.
Additionally, some 18,040 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date – 161 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the pandemic in Guyana last year, 188,859 persons have been tested for COVID-19 so far of which 10,261 females and 9794 males were positive cases.
Of the 96 new cases recorded on Wednesday, four were from Region One (Barima-Waini), seven cases from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), nine from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a whopping 53 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region, five from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), another nine cases from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), five more cases from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining four cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) in the last 24 hours, according to Wednesday’s dashboard.

Spike in Region Nine
During his update on the COVID-19 situation in Guyana, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that authorities are monitoring a spike in cases over the past two weeks in Region Nine.
“We have seen a spike in Region Nine and we’re working to curtail that… We have right now, in Region Nine, about 354 active cases… We have cases in different parts in Region Nine but more cases in these Lethem and Sand Creek area,” he stated.
According to the Health Minister, there are currently 52 cases in Lethem, 50 cases in St Ignatius, 38 cases in Sand Creek and some 25 cases in Culvert City.
However, Dr Anthony disclosed that none of these active cases are severe.
“Most of these cases have been mild and those who have difficulty breathing and so, those are the ones we will move to the isolation centre but we haven’t had many people coming to the isolation centre,” the Minister stated, adding that steps are being taken to control the spread of the disease.
Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercised in February and as of Tuesday, 233,134 persons have received first their dose – representing 47.9 per cent of Guyana’s adult population. So far, 108,752 persons have been fully vaccinated – accounting for some 22.3 per cent of persons 18 years and older.
However, Government is hoping to inoculate another 253,000 persons.
Currently, Region One is leading in terms of the highest percentage of vaccination with 59.9 per cent, while Region 10 continues to lag significantly behind with 14.6 per cent.
The immunisation figures in the other regions are: Region Two, 43.7 per cent; Region Three, 47.1 per cent; Region Four, 49.4 per cent; Region Five, 50.4 per cent; Region Six, 56.1 per cent; Region Seven, 47.9 per cent; Region Eight, 32.7 per cent; and Region Nine, 46.6 per cent.
“We have Region 10 and Region Eight that are really lagging and therefore, we have to see how we can pick up the numbers in these areas,” Minister Anthony stated.
Meanwhile, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising. The measures also include a 22:30h (10:30 pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew that is in effect until June 30, 2021.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Wednesday, some 181,344,224 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 3,934,253 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 72,186,963 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 1,896,955.