Region 6 woman is latest COVID-19 fatality

…12 new cases recorded

Another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The latest fatality has been identified as an 83-year-old female from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who died on Tuesday, March 15. She was fully vaccinated at the time of her death.
With this, the total number of deaths from the virus in Guyana has gone up to 1226.
Meanwhile, 12 new COVID-19 cases were recorded within a 24-hour period, thus taking confirmed cases in the country to 63,169.
However, only 171 of these are currently active cases. These include five patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 166 persons in isolation – 15 in institutional isolation and 151 in home isolation.
There are also another 12 persons in institutional quarantine, while a total of 20 persons are currently hospitalised with COVID-19 across the country.
So far, some 61,772 persons have recovered from the life-threatening disease – 32 more than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country, approximately 556,729 persons have been tested so far and of this figure, some 29,089 males and 34,080 females were found to be positive.
Of the 12 new cases reported on Wednesday, two are from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), three are from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara), four from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), two from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and one from East Berbice-Corentyne.
There were no new cases recorded in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) within the 24-hour period.
This decline in COVID-19 cases has resulted in the Guyana Government earlier this week removing most restrictions as the country recovers from the pandemic and return to normalcy.
But while mandates such as masking in public and social distancing are no longer in place, health authorities are still encouraging persons to get vaccinated and those who qualify to get their booster shots, in order to add a layer of protection against the virus.
The latest vaccination figures show that so far, 436,702 adults or 85.1 per cent have taken a first dose and some 334,253 or 65.2 per cent are fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, approximately 34,115 or 46.8 per cent have received their first dose, while some 24,706 or 33.9 per cent of them are fully immunised.
According to Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony during Wednesday’s COVID-19 update, they continue to have challenges with this age cohort. To this end, he urged parents to get their children vaccinated especially as the nation prepares for the full reopening of schools after the Easter holidays.
“While we would have had campaigns at some schools and so forth, we were not able to vaccinate a lot of children, because they did not get permission from their parents,” Dr Anthony said.
He noted that while children, if infected with COVID-19, usually present with mild symptoms, the vaccine could provide added protection, and he was, therefore, urging parents to ensure their children were fully covered.
“I really hope that we will see an uptake in this age group,” Dr Anthony said.
Meanwhile, an estimated 55,383 persons have so far returned for their booster shots.
Of the 18-39 age category, 82.9 per cent took a first dose, while 59.5 per cent are fully vaccinated and another six per cent has taken a booster shot.
In the 40-59 age category, 84.2 per cent have taken a first dose, 69.9 per cent took a second dose, while only 12.5 per cent have taken a booster.
For the 60 and above age category, 84 per cent have taken a first dose while 74.6 per cent have had a second dose, and 23.8 per cent have had a booster shot.
Dr Anthony said such a percentage was inadequate and appealed to older persons, who were much more at risk of contracting the virus, to get their booster doses.
“Most of these persons that we see coming into the hospital, they have been unvaccinated, and therefore, one of the things that I really want to urge people to do is to make sure that they are vaccinated,” the Health Minister stated.
According to recent World Health Organisation (WHO) figures, some 458,479,635 confirmed cases were reported globally with 6,047,653 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 149,068,232 while the death toll has gone up to 2,665,428. (G8)