Pensioner is latest COVID-19 death

Another person who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died, according to the Ministry of Health.
This latest fatality is a 79-year-old male from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) who died on Tuesday while receiving care at a medical facility.
The total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana has now gone up to 417. So far, the death toll for the month of June is at 19. With 99 fatalities, May became the deadliest month since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus here last year, after surpassing April’s tally of 66 COVID-19 deaths.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also reported on Wednesday that another 134 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 from some 1,756 tests conducted in the last 24 hours. This now takes the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 17,939 – 8,836 males and 9,103 females.
However, 1,685 of these are currently active cases. This includes 20 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 1,665 persons in isolation. That is, 99 in institutional isolation and the other 1566 in home isolation.
Additionally, there are four persons in institutional quarantine.
Some 15,837 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus thus far – 209 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
To date, 164,622 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Guyana.
Of the 134 new cases detected on Wednesday, two were in Region One (Barima-Waini), three were in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), nine were in Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), a whopping 49 were in Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), another nine were in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 37 were in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), one was in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 16 were in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Essequibo) and the other eight cases were in Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There was no new case recorded in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) in the last 24 hours, according to Wednesday’s Dashboard.

Vaccination
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 herd immunity. Only last week, the vaccination campaign reached the milestone of immunising some 200,000 persons with the first dose of the COVID-19 jab.
So far, more than 214,200 persons have received their first dose of the vaccine, accounting for 44 per cent of the adult population. Further, more than 79,800 persons 18 years and older are fully vaccinated, accounting for 16.4 per cent of the population.
During his latest update on the COVID-19 situation in Guyana on Wednesday, Health Ministry Dr Frank Anthony implored persons who received their first dose and are eligible for their second shot to ensure they get it to become fully vaccinated against the deadly virus.
“We still see there are people who have received their first dose…but we haven’t seen them coming back to the facility for their second dose. If they are not fully immunised, they are not going to have the full benefit of the vaccine. It’s only when you are fully immunised, meaning that you’ve had both doses of the vaccine, that you would be able to get the benefits of the vaccine,” he stated.
According to Dr Anthony, the Health Ministry has been working very hard to get more people to come out and get immunised. He noted that while the turnout continues to lag in some regions, others have been performing well in terms of getting their population inoculated.
Regions One and Six are leading the way, with more than half of their adult population vaccinated with at least the first dose. That is, 51 per cent in the Barima-Waini region and the 51.9 per cent in the East Berbice-Corentyne region – the latter being the highest number.
The figures for the other regions are: 41.4 per cent of the adult population in Region Two; 43.8 per cent in Region Three; 45.2 per cent in Region Four; 47.8 per cent in Region Five; 43.6 per cent in Region Seven; 28.3 per cent in Region Eight; 41.9 per cent in Region Nine, and Region 10 continues to lag behind with a mere 13 per cent of its adult population taking their first dose.
“Slow progress, but still lagging behind with all the rest, because most of the other regions are either in their 50s or in 40s. So we would like to see improvements in [Region] 10, and hopefully we can urge more people to come out to get vaccinated,” the Health Minister has noted.
Meanwhile, 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 a 22:30h (10:30pm) to 04:00h (4 am) national curfew.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19, or needs any additional information, contact the COVID-19 Hotline: 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately, or visit www.health.gov.gy. (G8)