Drastic decline in COVID-19 deaths, infections, hospitalisations – Health Minister

…active cases drop to 2673

Following the alarming surge reported within recent weeks, infections and deaths related to the novel coronavirus have been on the decline as the situation countrywide seems to be stabilising.

Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony informed during Tuesday’s COVID-19 update that there are now 2673 active cases throughout the ten administrative regions, representing a significant drop.
“We have noticed a trend where there has been a decline in cases across the country…The regions I would consider that we have hotspots are really in Region Three, Region Four. We also have in Region Eight and Region 10,” he outlined.
In Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), there are cases in Tuschen (55), La Parfaite Harmonie (50), Klein Pouderoyen (50), Parika (59), Crane (46), Zeelugt (42), Cornelia Ida (40), Vreed-en-Hoop (38) and Hague (33).
Over in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), infections are dominant at Diamond (49), Grove (42), Herstelling (24), Sophia (41), Kitty (34), Campbellville (33), Cummings Lodge (21), Enterprise (18), Mon Repos (15), Triumph (15) and Lusignan (16).
In Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), hotspots are Mahdia (32); while the data shows Wismar (56), Amelia’s Ward (37) and Mackenzie (17) in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There is also a sweeping decline in hospitalised cases, where 60 persons are in hospitals across the country, inclusive of 35 in the Infectious Disease facility. Some 14 persons are also in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
“This is a drastic change from what we had a couple weeks ago, when we were seeing 120 cases at Ocean View…We have also had up to 38 persons in the ICU. That has come down. Despite this, of the 60 cases that we have, we have three mothers who are COVID positive. They’re at the GPHC so that’s something that we have to monitor because we’re still seeing a lot of pregnant women who are coming in with COVID,” the Health Minister explained.
Now, the Ministry can also focus on reducing the mortality rate from the virus, which current stands at 12.2 per cent.
“With a decrease in hospitalisation for severe cases, we are also noticing that the death rates are going down and that’s also a very important sign. The mortality rate right now is 12.2 person to every 10,000 persons in the population. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, we’ll see this number go down further,” Dr Anthony shared.
In September, when the country was in the midst of its third wave of the pandemic, the Health Minister had said that infections were driven primarily by the Delta variant.
While the Guyana Government has not officially confirmed the presence of the Delta variant in the country, it was explained that officials are operating with the assumption that it had spread to local shores, given the increasing number of cases and hospitalisations, especially among the younger age groups.
In terms of COVID-19 medications, the Ministry has been using Remdesivir for treatment along with dexamethasone. These supplies are in stock and no instances of expiry has occurred thus far.