– as 3 more die, 83 new cases recorded
The Health Ministry on Friday reported that three more persons who tested positive for COVID-19 have passed, thus taking the death toll to over 400.
The new deaths are a 36-year-old female from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) who died on May 26 and a 71-year-old from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) who succumbed later on May 27. This has risen May’s death toll to 99.
The third death is a 75-year-old woman from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) who died on Wednesday, June 2. Five persons have died for the month of June thus far. The death toll now stands at 403. 
However, new statistics proved that 83 new cases were recorded over a 24-hour period, taking the total positives recorded to date to 17,459. There are 17 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 105 in institutional isolation and 1772 in home isolation. Another six persons are under institutional quarantine.
A total of 15,162 persons have recovered while 159,067 were tested.
A breakdown showed that eight new cases were recorded in Region One (Barima-Waini), seven in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), 40 in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), two in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), seven in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), 15 in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and four in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There are still 282 cases in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 1223 in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), and 365 in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni).
Meanwhile, Guyana has administered over 200,000 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, with no reported case where adverse effects manifested.
This was according to Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony who stated that 207,889 or 42.7 per cent of the adult population received their first dose of the vaccine. Fully immunised persons stand at 73,471 or 15 per cent.
Out of this large bracket, no adverse effects surfaced, only common side effects that are associated with vaccine.
“We haven’t had any adverse effects. I want to distinguish adverse effects from side effects. Adverse effects is something that is really unexpected and that’s why when people receive their vaccines, we keep them back for about 15 to 20 minutes to observe them. One of the adverse effects that we normally would look for is anaphylactic shock and so far, we haven’t observed anybody getting those things,” the Minister shared.
A study was done using immunised persons from different age groups in the country, whereby over 50 per cent did not display any side effects. Between the 18 to 29 age group, there was 17.9 per cent of persons reporting some form of side effects; with 18.7 per cent for the 30 to 39 age group; 11.7 per cent for the 40 to 49 age group; and 15 per cent for the 50 to 59.
“We’ve had people with side effects and we have done a study using about 5000 people in Regions Four, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine and 10. Of those 5000 persons, we’ve seen about 44.4 per cent reporting side effects, which means that 55.6 per cent did not have any side effects at all.”
