Guyana records 56th COVID-19 death, 41 new cases in 24 hours

Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has increased to 56 following the death of an elderly woman on Sunday morning. 
In a statement, the Ministry of Health said: “as of 7:00h on September 13, 2020, one other person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died.”
This latest fatality has been identified as an 83-year-old woman from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who died while receiving care at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
According to the Ministry, the test sample was collected from the elderly woman at the time of her admission and the results returned positive for COVID-19 subsequently.
This comes on the heels of the Ministry reporting three new COVID deaths since Friday.
These were a 70-year-old man from Region Four; 62-year-old Viber Gomes from Eteringbang, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and 67-year-old Jacob George from Port Kaituma, Region One (Barima-Waini).
Samples were also collected from these victims at the time of their admission and they were tested positive for COVID-19.
Guyana would have recorded 10 deaths from the novel coronavirus over the past week. The week began with the COVID death toll at 46.
Meanwhile, the updated COVID-19 dashboard for Sunday shows that Guyana has recorded 41 new COVID-19 cases.
This now brings the country’s total number of coronavirus cases up to 1853 – 915 males and 938 females.
Of the total number of cases, however, only 582 are active. This includes 15 persons in the COVID-19 ICU at the GPHC and the remaining 567 in isolation, that is, 55 in institutional isolation and the 512 in home isolation.
Meanwhile, there are 87 persons in institutional quarantine.
Additionally, some 1215 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease here.
To date, Guyana has tested a total of 10,920 persons for the novel coronavirus.
A breakdown of the 41 new cases recorded on Sunday shows that a whopping 26 were detected from Region One (Barima-Waini), one from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 12 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), and one each in Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
The other regional figures remain the same, with 25 in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 12 in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 26 in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 244 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and 82 in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Government has also embarked on significantly increased testing to ensure that all positives are detected. The Department of Public Information on Wednesday reported that authorities are examining the possibility of sending COVID-19 samples from Region Nine to neighbouring Brazil for testing.
“We have been exploring with the Government of Brazil, and in particular the State of Roraima to be able to send our samples from Region Nine, across to Brazil for them to process them for us,” Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, was quoted as saying.
Dr Anthony said Government is hoping to finalise these arrangements in a meeting with the Brazilian authorities that is set for Friday. These efforts will clear the existing backlog that resulted from increased testing.
Already, the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has assisted to test a few hundred samples. Out of the 500 samples that were sent to CARPHA, over 400 have returned, and an additional 138 were sent last Monday.