Unvaccinated Region 2 woman latest COVID-19 death

…46 new cases detected

Guyana’s COVID-19 fatalities have gone up following the death of an elderly woman who tested positive for the novel coronavirus.
The 86-year-old woman from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) died on Tuesday, December 20, 2022. She was unvaccinated at the time of her death, according to the Health Ministry.
This is the first pandemic death recorded for the month of December. In November, there were four COVID-19 fatalities recorded, with the last being a 42-year-old male from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who died on November 25.
With the death of the elderly woman on Tuesday, the total number of COVID-19 fatalities in the country is now 1286.
On the other hand, a whopping 46 new cases were recorded within the 24-hour reporting period, taking the confirmed cases in the country to 71,963.
However, only 247 of these cases are currently active, with one patient in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining persons in isolation – eight persons in institutional isolation and the other 238 persons in home isolation.
There is also one person currently in institutional quarantine.
Additionally, some 70,431 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date.
Since the outbreak of the virus in Guyana almost three years ago, some 32,983 males and 38,980 females have tested positive for COVID-19 from a total of 709,610 tests conducted thus far.
Back in March, the Guyana Government had removed most restrictions as the country recovered from the pandemic and returned to normalcy.
However, health authorities continue to urge persons to get vaccinated and those who qualify to get their booster shots as an added layer of protection against the virus.
In his last COVID-19 update earlier this month, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony reported that there has been an increase in the number of positive COVID-19 cases as well as hospitalisations across the country.
“We’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, an increase in hospitalisations. So, we’re appealing to the general public to ensure that they take all necessary precautions,” he stated.
With the holidays here, Dr Anthony pointed out that persons needed to take responsibility and protect themselves during this time when COVID-19 infections are expected to spread.
Moreover, the Health Minister also cautioned that the COVID variants currently circulating mimic influenza or flu hence he urged persons to get tested if they had flu-like symptoms.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has reported that some 650,332,899 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been recorded globally, including 6,649,874 deaths.
In the region of the Americas, including the Caribbean, some 184,540,414 cases were reported along with 2,882,319 deaths. (G8)