Region 2 man latest COVID-19 death; 114 new cases recorded

…persons with flu-like symptoms urged to take COVID tests – Dr Anthony

Another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus has died, according to the Health Ministry on Wednesday.
The latest fatality is a 68-year-old male from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), who died on July 18.
Consequently, the total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana has increased to 1268.
Meanwhile, another 114 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 within a 24-hour period, bringing confirmed cases in the country up to 69,172.
However, only 908 of these are currently active cases, comprising three patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining persons in isolation – 874 in home isolation and the other 31 in institutional isolation. There is also one person in institutional quarantine.
So far, some 66,996 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus – 121 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total of 671,885 tests have been conducted countrywide, returning positive results for 31,721 males and 37, 451 females.

New cases
Of the 114 new cases recorded on Wednesday, six were from Region One (Barima-Waini), two from Pomeroon-Supenaam; nine from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 70 from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica); five from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); eight from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), five from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and the remaining nine cases from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).
There were no new cases recorded in Region Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) within the 24-hour reporting period.
After a prolonged period of declining cases, the Guyana Government, back in March, removed most restrictions as the country moves to recover from the pandemic and return to normalcy.
But in recent weeks, there has been another spike in COVID cases here, which health authorities have attributed to the presence of the BA.5 – a contagious subvariant of the rapidly-spreading Omicron strain.
As a result, persons are being urged to get vaccinated, and those who qualify to get their booster shots as an added layer of protection against COVID-19.
The latest figures show that some 444, 604, or 86.7 per cent, of the adult population have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine while 344,337, or 67.1 per cent, have received two doses.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, approximately 35, 262, or 48.3 per cent, have received a first dose vaccine while 25, 805, or 35.4 per cent, have received a second dose. In the five to 11 age group, some 5324 have had their first doses – 5.2 per cent, with 0.9 per cent (876) returning for their second shots.
So far, nearly 70, 349 booster shots have been administered.

Get tested
With cases on a rising trajectory, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony is encouraging persons who are experiencing flu-like symptoms to get tested for COVID-19.
During Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, the Minister explained that the disease has recently started to present with more flu-like symptoms than previously, leaving many persons thinking they have the common flu, rather than COVID-19.
“There’s lots of people who might be infected, to them it looks like a flu but if they go and do the test, it probably is COVID, because the presentation, now you see a lot of flu-like symptoms, so unless you test you wouldn’t know if you have COVID,” he explained.
The Minister continued to lament that a lot of persons have not only been hesitant to take the vaccines but are complacent as well.
“But I think a lot of people are very complacent, a lot of people feel that they don’t need to get vaccinated and therefore, it’s not so much hesitancy now as complacency, so I think that is a major challenge,” he noted.
Minister Anthony also urged persons to not take vaccination lightly as cases have recently risen globally.
The World Health Organisation (WHO), as recent as Tuesday, reported that the number of COVID-19 cases has tripled and hospitalisation rates doubled globally with the emergence of the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants.
“So, they have a tripling of cases globally and you have a doubling of hospitalisation, so it is not something that we should treat lightly… One way of avoiding severe infection is through vaccination, and I think we have to reinforce that message so that our population can understand that. So, now is not the time to be complacent if more than six months have gone by since last COVID shot, then you’re eligible for a booster,” Dr Anthony stated.
According to WHO’s recent figures, some 562,672,324 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,367,793 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 167,538,303 while the death toll has gone up to 2,776,862.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, WHO also reported that a total of 12,166,921,655 doses have been administered worldwide.