Unvaccinated nurse dies from COVID-19, 2 unvaccinated doctors hospitalised

…74 new cases, death toll now 546

An unvaccinated nurse died on Sunday morning while being treated in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) after contracting the novel coronavirus.
In addition to the nurse, at least two other doctors who are also unvaccinated have been infected with the deadly virus.
Guyana Times understands that one of the doctors, a 31-year-old male, is in the COVID-19 ICU. A senior health official told this newspaper that the doctor is said to be in a critical condition.
Communications Manager at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) Chelauna Providence, when contacted, confirmed that both the nurse who died and the doctor currently in the ICU were both unvaccinated.
However, the nurse’s death was not reflected in Sunday’s COVID-19 update. The Ministry of Health reported that five more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus have died as of Saturday.
This now takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic in Guyana to 546.
These latest fatalities are three women from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) – a 59-year-old and a 77-year-old, both of whom died on Saturday as well as a 65-year-old female who died on Tuesday last. The other two deaths are a 64-year-old man from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and an 82-year-old man from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), both of whom died on Friday.
According to the Health Ministry, these patients were admitted with COVID-19 like symptoms but died while receiving care at medical institutions. Samples were taken at the time of admission and subsequently returned positive results.
Meanwhile, 74 persons have tested positive for COVID-19 from some 1165 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
With these, the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana has gone up to 22,597. But only 858 of these are currently active cases. This includes 12 patients in the COVID-19 ICU and the remaining 846 persons in isolation, that is, 87 in institutional isolation and the other 759 in home isolation.
There are also four other persons in institutional quarantine, according to the Ministry’s updated COVID-19 Dashboard on Sunday.
Meanwhile, some 21,193 persons have so far recovered from the life-threatening disease – 10 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
To date, 226,856 persons have been tested for the novel coronavirus in Guyana of which 11,592 females and 11,005 males were positive cases.
A breakdown of the 74 new COVID-19 cases detected on Sunday showed that 10 were from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), three from the Essequibo Islands-West Demerara region, a whopping 32 cases from Region Four, four from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice), 19 cases from the East Berbice-Corentyne region, another one from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), three more from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), and the remaining two cases from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
Regions One (Barima-Waini) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) recorded no COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, according to Sunday’s COVID-19 dashboard.
In order to curb the rising number of cases in the country, 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 heard immunity.
So far, over 50 per cent of the adult population has received their first dose of the vaccine and recent date puts this figure at more than 250,000 persons. Meanwhile, fully immunised persons in the country stand in excess of 137,000 of the population who are 18 years and older.
Persons are encouraged to get immunised since the COVID-19 vaccine gives full protection against death. In fact, health authorities have disclosed that no one who is fully vaccinated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been hospitalised or died from the virus.
Nevertheless, as more people continue to get vaccinated, authorities are urging the public to continue observing all COVID-19 preventative measures.
The new guidelines for August indicate that the national curfew from 22:30h to 04:00h remains intact until the end of the month along with masking in public, social distancing and frequent hand washing and sanitising.
Among the new measures is public transportation operators – including taxi drivers, minibus drivers, and boat operators, now being required to be fully vaccinated.
In addition, cinemas, betting shops, and casinos are now allowed to operate at 40 per cent capacity but only to vaccinated persons, who are still required to wear facemasks.
Regarding the operation of a cinema, the measure posited that there shall be no concession stand available.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said as of Sunday, some 196,553,009 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 4,200,412 deaths.
The WHO also reported on Thursday that in the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 76,788,166 while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2,003,542. (G8)