Death of Region 3 man takes COVID-19 deaths to 1280

…13 new cases recorded

Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has gone up to 1280 after another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus died.

This latest fatality was a 61-year-old male from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), who died on September 11.
According to the Ministry of Health on Wednesday, this person was not vaccinated against the deadly virus.
Meanwhile, another 13 new COVID-19 infections were detected from 430 tests conducted within a 24-hour period.
This now takes the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 71,222.
However, only 130 of these are currently active cases, including 123 persons in home isolation and the remaining seven persons in institutional isolation.
There are also eight other persons presently in institutional quarantine, while there are no patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
So far, some 69,812 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease in Guyana – 42 more recoveries than the figures reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total 691,921 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this, some 32,642 males and 38,580 females were found to be positive.
Of the 13 new cases reported on Wednesday, one was from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), nine cases Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), another two from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), and the remaining case from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in the other six regions during the reporting period.
Back in March, the Guyana Government removed most restrictions as the country recovers from the pandemic and return to normalcy.
Nevertheless, health authorities continue to urge persons to get vaccinated and for those who qualify to get their booster shots as an added layer of protection against the virus.
The latest vaccination numbers show that so far, more than 446,400 or 87 per cent of adults have taken a first dose, while over 346,200 or 67.5 per cent received a second dose.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, just over 35,600 or 48.9 per cent have received a first dose. Second doses for this age cohort stand in excess of 26,100 or 35.9 per cent.
Vaccines are also being administered to children within five to 11 years, and so far, over 8100 of them or 8 per cent have taken a first dose, while more than 3800 or 3.8 per cent returned for their second jab.
Meanwhile, in excess of 73,300 persons or 12.5 per cent have returned for their first booster dose.
During his COVID-19 update on Wednesday, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony revealed that there has been a low vaccination uptake amongst the elderly population, which is the most vulnerable group to the virus and accounts for the highest number of fatalities.
According to Dr Anthony, some 85.3 per cent of persons 60 years and older have received a first dose and of that amount, some 76.4 per cent returned for their second shot. Additionally, a mere 28.5 per cent of this age cohort got a first booster shot, while a small group of 1.5 per cent have returned for a second booster.
“So, in terms of vaccination, one of the things we have to really work on is ensuring that more older people come back to get the booster doses, because as we know, someone who would have received a booster dose or a second dose six months ago is now eligible for that booster dose and if you don’t get that booster dose then your immune system would not be working as optimally as it should to fight off the COVID-19,” the Health Minister stated.
Only on Thursday, Dr Anthony had reported that while most of the population would have taken at least a first and second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, a small portion of these persons have returned for their booster shots.
Recently, the Health Ministry piloted its late-night vaccine campaign in Region Four, which has generated a sizeable response. Throughout the first week, some 1490 doses were administered while by the second week, 1603 doses were recorded. The plan is to roll out this initiative next in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne).
“Late night vaccine is something we have started recently and we have been seeing more people coming out in the evenings to get their vaccination…Because we are seeing a positive uptake in the later hours, we are going to extend this programme from Region Four to Region Six and see whether we have similar results,” Minister Anthony previously said.
According to recent figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) , some 607,083,820 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,496,721 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 177,023,010 while the death toll has gone up to 2,826,385.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, WHO also reported that a total of 12,613,484,608 doses have been administered worldwide. (G8)