Man, 38, is latest COVID victim; 106 new cases recorded in 24h

The Health Ministry on Sunday reported that another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died thus bringing the death toll to 574.
This latest fatality is a 38-year-old male from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who died on Saturday while being treated at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Ocean View Hospital, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown.
The COVID-19 death toll so far for the month of August stands at 28. It was also reported that another 106 persons have tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the last 24 hours.
According to Sunday’s updated COVID-19 dashboard, the total number of confirmed cases in the country has now increased to 23,561.
This includes 16 patients in the COVID-19 ICU and the remaining 1022 persons in isolation, that is, 81 in institutional isolation and the other 941 in home isolation.
There are also four other persons in institutional quarantine.
So far, some 21,946 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease – 19 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Additionally, a total of 244,493 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus since the outbreak of the pandemic here last year. Of this, 11,466 males and 12,095 females were found to be positive.
Of the 106 new COVID cases recorded on Sunday, four were detected in Region One (Barima-Waini), two cases in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), 11 in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a whopping 77 cases in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), five in the East Berbice-Corentyne region, one case each in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), and the remaining five cases in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Regions Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) recorded no COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Sunday’s COVID-19 dashboard.
In order to curb the rising number of cases in the country, the Guyana Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercise back in February and is aggressively rolling it out in the various regions in order to achieve heard immunity.
So far, over 50 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine and recent data puts this figure at more than 282,000 persons. Meanwhile, fully immunised persons in the country stand in excess of 146,000 of the population who are 18 years and older
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine gives full protection against death. In fact, Health authorities have disclosed that no one who is fully vaccinated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been hospitalised or died from the virus.
Nevertheless, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures, particularly masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising. The measures also include vaccination requirements to access certain social locations such as restaurants and cinemas as well as some Government services.