No adverse reports after 1st week of full reopening of school – Health Minister

…8 new cases recorded

One week since schools across the country officially reopened fully after two years, the Health Ministry has not received “adverse” reports or detected spikes.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony shared on Friday that a surveillance team is equipped to monitor infections in the country. However, lowered testing rates as seen in Guyana and in other countries are prone to influence the pandemic and data on infections.
“We have not had any adverse reports and we have not seen a spike in cases. We have a surveillance system and through that, we’re able to monitor cases. We haven’t seen a big upsurge in cases. Right now, we have 108 active cases,” Dr Anthony underlined.
Throughout the week, students were back into the normal classroom setting in a phased approach, under protocols to keep them safe from infections.
In relation to positives, he said another underlying factor is the reduced testing rate in Guyana and other countries. Due to the significant drop in testing across the world, he said experts are finding it difficult to predict the disease and its dynamics.
“We have to take this in the context that there has been a reduction in testing and therefore, it’s only a small portion of those who tested have shown that they are positive. This is not just a local trend. The WHO is reporting that over the past months, there has been a 70 to 90 per cent decline in testing. If people are not coming forward to be tested, then we wouldn’t have an accurate picture of what is happening with the pandemic.”
Presently, the Ministry is working to increase vaccination among adolescents, through collaboration with the Education Ministry. However, parental consent is still an obstacle.
“Now that school has reopened, we’re going to work more closely with the Ministry of Education and hopefully, we’ll get better cooperation with parents to be able to vaccinate these children.”
In this category, first doses are at 34,545 or 47.4 per cent; with 25,268 second doses or 34.6 per cent. Adults have seen an overall coverage of 440,282 first doses and 339,532 second doses, reflecting 85.8 per cent and 66.2 per cent respectively. Before June, the aim is to achieve 70 per cent coverage for full immunisation to meet the WHO target.

New cases
Only eight new coronavirus cases have been recorded as of Friday in the country.
The dashboard showed a total of 63,465 confirmed cases thus far, representing 29,219 males and 34,246 females. Deaths have not increased, thereby remaining at 1228.
With zero patients being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 96 are in home isolation and seven in institutional quarantine. No one is in institutional isolation. A significant 62,141 recoveries have been made. Across facilities, 595,766 samples have been processed for the novel virus.
This month, the US Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the first COVID-19 diagnostic test that detects chemical compounds in breath samples. The test, the FDA said, can be performed in environments where the patient specimen is both collected and analysed, such as doctor’s offices, hospitals and mobile testing sites.
When asked about the possibility of introducing such testing here, the Health Minister noted that it would first have to be approved and then Government would consider the feasibility.
“I think we would look at it and see what advantages, if any, it would bring to our current testing landscape here in Guyana and if it’s going to be beneficial. Then, obviously we’re going to get it into the country.” (G12)