Man, 56, dies from COVID; 100 new cases recorded

Another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) died while receiving care at a medical institution, the Health Ministry reported on Saturday.
This now takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana to 894.
The latest fatality is a 56-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who died on Friday. The man was partially vaccinated
According to the Ministry, he was admitted with COVID-19 like symptoms and samples were taken, which subsequently returned positive test.
However, new statistics provided by the Ministry showed that 100 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 34,977.
However, only 3494 are currently active cases. There include 18 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 3476 persons in isolation, that is, 3370 in home isolation and the other 106 in institutional isolation.
There are also four more persons in institutional quarantine.
To date, some 30,589 persons have recovered from the deadly virus – 22 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana, a total of 344,591 COVID-19 tests have been conducted in the country from which 16,539 males and 18,438 females contracted the life-threatening virus.
Of the 100 new cases recorded on Saturday, four are from Region One (Barima-Waini); 15 cases from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); seven from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 44 cases from the Demerara-Mahaica region, 11 more from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); five cases from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne); three cases from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni); another four cases from Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni); one in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining six cases in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
The Guyana Government launched its COVID-19 vaccination exercise back in February and continues to roll it out across the various regions in order to achieve herd immunity and reduce the number of COVID-19 infections.
So far, some over 376,400 persons or 73.4 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of the vaccine and approximately 46.1 per cent or 236,200 persons who are 18 years and older are fully immunised.
As it relates to children, approximately 26,751 or 36.7 per cent first doses have been administered to the 12 to 17-year age group. Of that amount, some 17,182 or 23.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.
Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony recently said that there is still a far way to go as it relates to vaccination for Guyana to achieve herd immunity.
“The higher the immunisation rates go up, you will see a falloff in terms of the hospitalisation and the deaths. As we increase these numbers of persons being vaccinated in Region Four, you are going to see the cases come down,” he stated.

Minister Anthony further assured that there are sufficient vaccines available to immunise the adult population in the country as well as the adolescent cohort. In fact, he indicated that additional vaccines – Sputnik V component two, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are slated to arrive within the coming days.
Nevertheless, as 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 any public building such as restaurants, places of worship, schools as well as Government buildings.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of Saturday, some 242,348,657 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 4,927,723 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Saturday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 92,640,794 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,272,988.