COVID cases rocket to 485 in single day – almost highest ever

– 2 fully vaccinated men succumb, death toll now 1058

Within the space of 24 hours, the country has recorded a whopping 485 new cases of COVID-19 and according to Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony, this trend is projected to continue.
“We can expect that this trend will continue because with the Omicron variant, it’s highly contagious and it doubles, the numbers double every four days or so. We can see those numbers going up,” Dr Anthony said during his COVID update on Tuesday.
On Monday, the country had recorded 94 new cases within a 24-hour period while the previous day, 281 new cases were detected.
Just a day ago, on Monday, Dr Anthony revealed that he suspected that the deadly new COVID-19 variant, Omicron, may be circulating in Guyana, and 24 hours into his recorded suspicion, COVID-19 cases have skyrocketed, not surprisingly, considering the Omicron variant is known to be highly transmittable amongst the population.
Dr Anthony further revealed that the new number of COVID cases recorded has brought the total number of active cases in Guyana to a concerning 1824.
The Minister disclosed that there are currently 1138 active cases in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); 272 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); 148 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); 78 in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo); 74 in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), and 41 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam).
He said that in regions where there are low numbers of cases, it’s just a matter of time as samples are yet to be processed.
“So, you can see cases are going up around the country, and those regions where we have low cases, we are awaiting the test results because, we have collected samples but they have not been processed as yet,” he said.
He also pointed out the COVID hotspots in the various regions. On the East Bank of Demerara, at Diamond, 43 people were infected; 33 at Providence, 20 in Grove, and 17 at Herstelling. In Georgetown, 49 infections have been recorded in Kitty, 36 in Sophia, 35 in Lodge, 27 in La Penitence, and 17 in Non Pareil. Cases have been recorded in all the wards.
Meanwhile, in other regions, 66 cases have been recorded in New Amsterdam, 45 in Lethem, 26 in Wismar, and 21 in Bartica.
Dr Anthony mentioned that there are “64 persons in [the] hospital, over the last 24 hours I think we had about 10 persons that came into the different hospitals. We currently have 36 persons at the Ocean View hospital, with eight of those persons in the ICU and a few of those persons are intubated. All of them are receiving oxygen but I think two of them are intubated.”
Dr Anthony also noted that we can expect these trends to continue if persons continue to ignore COVID-19 guidelines.

Deaths
However, the Health Ministry on Tuesday reported that two persons who were tested positive for the virus have succumbed. They are a 60-year-old man from Region Four and a 40-year-old man from Region Six. They were both vaccinated. This has taken the death toll to 1058.

Vaccination
Meanwhile, the vaccination numbers in Guyana remain relatively the same, while there is a slight increase in first dose.
“There has been a slight increase in the first dose. Right now, we’re at 411,735 persons receiving a first dose that’s about 80.3 per cent of the adult population. The second dose is 296,424 or 57.8 per cent of our adult population,” Dr Anthony confirmed.
He further added that there are currently 30,522 children between the ages of 12 and 17 who have taken their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, while 21,774 are fully vaccinated.
He stated that 12,306 booster shots have been administered to persons.
“Boosters have been going up incrementally, so today, we are at 12,306 booster doses but we still have a long way to go because of the persons who would have received their second dose. This is just a very small portion of that so we still have a very long way to go in ensuring that more people get their booster doses,” Dr Anthony said.