Hotspots in Regions 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 being monitored

− Diamond, Timehri, Sophia, Tuschen, Kitty and Wismar among hotspots

The Health Ministry is monitoring several COVID-19 hotspots across six administrative regions in the country, with Georgetown still recording alarming infections and increased active cases.
For Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), Tuschen has 23 cases. On the East Bank Demerara in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), there are 39 cases in Diamond, 31 in Grove and 27 in Timehri.
On the East Coast of Demerara (ECD), 21 cases were recorded in Better Hope.
In Georgetown, the Ministry is monitoring 45 cases in Sophia, Greater Georgetown; 35 in Kitty, 32 in South Ruimveldt, 32 in Campbellville, 28 in Cummings Lodge and 28 in Lodge.
For Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), New Amsterdam has 30 active cases; while Bartica in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) has 33. Over in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), Mariwau village has 35 active cases. In Wismar, Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice), there are 18 active cases.
Speaking on the situation, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony outlined, “Currently, these are the areas where we’re monitoring more stringently but I think people in these areas need to take some additional precautions of making sure that they wear masks and social distancing more continuously and properly; and get vaccinated.”
The Minister noted that Guyanese should take the pandemic seriously and adhere to the measures, especially with the rise of the Delta variant and other surges. Otherwise, the death toll will surge.
“I really hope people take this thing seriously because if we do have a Delta surge, unfortunately we are going to see more people getting infected, more people getting hospitalised and see more deaths…Apart from the increase in cases, we’re also seeing an increase in hospitalisation. Again, if people take more precautions, we would have less cases coming into the hospital and if people get vaccinated, we’ll see less people come in with a more severe form of the disease,” Dr Anthony cautioned.
Recently, it was revealed that the Ministry was preparing for any surges that may arise from the circulation of the Delta variant, by putting systems and human resources in place at the designated COVID-19 facilities.
Speaking on the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, he was quoted saying, “We have expanded that unit to have now about 45 beds with ventilators and monitors and so forth. When you have a patient in the Intensive Care Unit, it’s quite an intensive process, meaning that the doctor-nurse ratio per patient is almost like a one-on-one ratio. So, you need a lot of people to be able to monitor these patients.”
Since the virus was first detected in the Wuhan province of China, there have been several mutations. From the first-discovered Alpha strain in the United Kingdom last year, authorities have moved to trace the Beta and Gamma variants. However, the Delta variant has already been detected in over 140 countries. As such, local health authorities are managing the situation as if the variant is here.
As of Friday, 308,758 persons have been vaccinated and this represents 60.2 per cent of the adult population. Second doses are at 159,460 or 31.1 per cent.