COVID-19 death toll rises to 205, 81 new cases recorded

…180 samples to be tested for virus variants

Another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died, taking the total number of deaths to 205 in Guyana.
The latest fatality is a 59-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who died on Tuesday while receiving care at a medical facility.
This is the fourth COVID-19 death recorded thus far this week. On Sunday, two elderly females, ages 64 and 69, from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and Region Four respectively, died while being treated for the virus at medical facilities.
Then, on Tuesday, a 76-year-old male also from Region 10 died while on his way to a medical facility.
The Health Ministry reported on Wednesday that 81 new coronavirus cases were recorded in the last 24 hours after some 743 tests were conducted.
According to the Ministry’s updated COVID-19 dashboard, the total number of confirmed cases in the country is 8928 – 4600 males and 4328 females. However, only 512 of these cases are currently active.
These include eight patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 504 persons in isolation – 32 in institutional isolation and the other 472 in home isolation.
There are also another eight persons in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 8211 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus, locally with 11 more recoveries recorded on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Guyana has tested some 72,170 persons for the novel coronavirus thus far.

New cases
Of the 81 new cases recorded on Wednesday, one each was detected in Regions One (Barima-Waini) and Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); 26 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 43 in Demerara-Mahaica; three in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); two in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); one each in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); another two in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and one case in Upper Demerara-Berbice.

Virus variants
Guyana currently does not have the capacity to test for any virus variants and as such, is working with partners overseas to conduct gene sequencing.
Previous tests carried out by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on some 10 samples from Guyana had found that there were no new strains of the virus in the country.
While the Guyana Government will continue to collaborate with CARPHA in this regard, it is simultaneously creating new partnerships to expand its gene sequencing efforts.
In fact, Guyana will be soon sending some 180 samples to the Icahn School of Medicine in New York, United States, for testing to determine if there are new variants of the novel coronavirus in Guyana.
According to Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during his COVID-19 update on Wednesday, Guyana will continue to partner with various agencies to continue to test samples to get a better understanding of the COVID-19 situation here.
“[Icahn School of Medicine] has been working in different countries and they have been accepting samples, and sequencing these samples to get a sense of the mutations that are occurring with the virus. So we have started this partnership with them and very shortly, we intend to send these samples to them so that they can help us analyse and see what are the variants that are circulating,” he noted.
Among the samples sent for testing are those from persons suspected to have been exposed to the virus variant in Brazil – which borders Guyana’s Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo district.
Samples were also taken from persons who died after contracting a severe form of the viral illness.
Also included are samples from persons who were reinfected so as to ascertain the differences between the first infection at the beginning of the pandemic and the new variants.
Dr Anthony explained that it was important to track these variants, especially since some of them have faster transmissibility from one person to another thus infecting more people rapidly.
“We have seen in the strain or the variant that was discovered in the United Kingdom that was one of the features and that variant is becoming a dominant variant in many countries around the world, because it has been transmitting from patient to patient faster, and that has changed the dynamic. So, if we weren’t sequencing and monitoring, we would not know that. Also, because of the way it has been transmitting faster, we’ve seen in some countries where they had controlled the pandemic, they have surges and it’s all because of these new variants,” Minister Anthony noted.
Only last month, Guyana started COVID-19 vaccination after receiving 3000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines from Barbados. This was significantly boosted on Sunday, when another 80,000 doses of the AstraZeneca shot arrived here – a donation from the Indian Government.
China has also sent 20,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccine, and another 104,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines – most likely AstraZeneca – are expected sometime this month from the COVAX facility.

Japan’s help
Meanwhile, Guyana will also be boosting its capacity to fight against the COVID-19 pandemic with a donation of equipment such as x-rays and ultrasound machines from the Government of Japan.
“They [Japan] had put out a ‘call’, so to speak, to different countries. And we have responded and we put up a list of things that would help us in our response to COVID AND our understanding is that they’ve agreed with the list and we are expecting that items would be coming into Guyana shortly,” Dr Anthony explained.
He added that Guyana’s list focused on diagnostic equipment. “We need these tools to be able to see what’s going on with people’s lungs and so forth,” the Minister noted. (G8)