…pregnant woman dies at COVID-19 facility
Guyana recorded two maternal deaths over the weekend. One of the women was a patient at the Ocean View Hospital, where COVID-19 patients are kept, while the other was a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). Both deaths were reported by GPHC on Sunday.
A 19-year-old female died shortly after giving birth to twins on Sunday at the GPHC. The babies were stillborn.
According to the hospital, the now dead teenager was from the East Bank of Demerara, Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica).
The second maternity death reported was a 40-year-old pregnant woman from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who also died on Sunday at the Ocean View facility, which houses the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Last month, there were two other maternal deaths at GPHC. On October 20, a 31-year-old mother of two, Rashanna Dindayal of Lodge, Georgetown, and her unborn child died at the city hospital. Then, Navita Maraj, a 39-year-old mother of five, and her unborn child died at the GPHC on October 29.
Sunday’s death of the pregnant woman, who tested positive for COVID, is the first in almost two months. The last fatality from the novel coronavirus was recorded on September 15 when an 88-year-old male from the Demerara-Mahaica region died as a result of the virus.
Nonetheless, the COVID-19 death toll in Guyana has gone up to 1282.
Only last week, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony reported that two pregnant women were hospitalised with COVID-19.
In Guyana, approximately 14,000 pregnancies are reported yearly. It has been reported that most pregnant women are at risk of contracting COVID-19, but immunisation would reduce their chances of either contracting the novel coronavirus disease or of having to be hospitalised therewith, or of even dying therefrom.
If a pregnant woman is vaccinated, some antibodies would be passed on to her foetus, thereby transferring to that foetus some protection against the virus.
Since the Pfizer vaccines are available for women in this bracket, the Ministry had started a campaign to get more of these persons vaccinated.
Even though most countries in the Region recommend that pregnant women be vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease, their uptake has still been very low. A lack of access to timely care and disruptions to prenatal services are to be blamed for an increase in maternal mortality in the Americas during the pandemic, with one in three pregnant women being unable to access timely critical care, according to Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Director Dr Carissa F Etienne earlier this year.
The PAHO Director had also called for greater emphasis to be placed on programmes that address women of ethnic minorities, such as Afro-descendants, Indigenous women, and migrants who “are often at greater risk due to the overlap of gender and social factors.
COVID-19 statistics
In the Ministry’s updated COVID-19 dashboard on Sunday, three new positive cases were reported. This took the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 71,471 of which 34 are currently active cases, that is, one patient in the COVID-19 ICU and the remaining 33 persons in isolation – 31 in home isolation and two in institutional isolation.
In the past few months, there has been a significant reduction in coronavirus cases reported daily.
To date, some 71,471 persons have recovered completely from the life-threatening virus.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total of 703,716 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this, some 32,761 males and 38,710 females were found to be positive.
All three new COVID cases recorded on Sunday were from Region Four.
Back in March, the Guyana Government had removed most restrictions as the country recovers from the pandemic and returns to normalcy.
Nevertheless, health authorities continue to urge persons to get vaccinated and for those qualified to get their booster shots as an added layer of protection against the virus.
According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent figures, some 630,832,131 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,584,104 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 180,478,506 while the death toll in the Region has gone up to 2,859,445.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, the WHO also reported that a total of 12,885,748,541 doses have been administered worldwide. (G8)
