Unvaccinated Region 7 man succumbs to COVID-19

…45 new cases recorded

The Health Ministry has announced one more COVID-19 fatality as of Friday, taking the confirmed death toll to 1275.
A 52-year-old from Region Seven died on August 8. He was not vaccinated.
Additionally, 45 new cases were reported, taking the confirmed cases up to 70,398. This translates to 32,239 males and 38,159 females.
One patient is in the Intensive Care Unit, 13 in institutional isolation, 481 in home isolation and three in institutional quarantine. Additionally, 68,628 persons have recovered.
About 500 active cases are being monitored, of which 14 are hospitalised. Eight patients are being housed at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, Liliendaal.
A breakdown of active cases is five for Region Nine, 14 for Region Two, 60 for Region Three, 275 for Region Four, 28 for Region Five, 52 for Region Six, 13 for Region Seven, 24 four Region Eight, four for Region Nine and 25 for Region 10.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Friday expressed that the current BA.5 wave is still causing infection among the population and authorities are monitoring the progression of this strain.
“It’s more contagious, meaning that if people are not wearing their masks, they can easily get infected. Another characteristic is that in persons who might have been infected before with one of the subvariants of Omicron, you can get reinfected with BA.5. People would have to take the precautions,” he detailed.
Dr Anthony provided some insight into the COVID-19 vaccination uptake among pregnant women, as he recommended they take the jabs.
The Health Minister relayed that myths have been circulating in the public domain, hinting that pregnant women can be affected if they take the COVID-19 vaccines. However, as he debunked such information, Dr Anthony said take the vaccines mean added protection for the child.
“That’s totally untrue. On the contrary, the vaccine would help both the infant and the mother. It is advisable that they take the vaccines. Even after delivery, a mother can take the vaccine. If they didn’t have one during the pregnancy, they can still take the vaccine,” he shared in the COVID-19 update.
The Health Minister reiterated that COVID-19 vaccines are completely safe for women and their newborn. Since jabs are not available for young children and infants, he advised that the mother be protected – of which some antibodies can be passed on to the child.
“These vaccines are safe and they are protective. So, if a pregnant woman got the vaccine in their last trimester, the antibodies they would build in their system would pass on to the infant and help to protect that infant.”
“We don’t have any vaccines that are currently available for small children and one way of protecting small children and infants would be that the mother be vaccinated so that the antibodies can pass through the breastmilk to the child. This is a very positive thing,” Dr Anthony added.
He is urging persons to get vaccinated, since reinfection is still a high possibility among the vulnerable and unimmunised.

Vaccination
Vaccination figures show that so far, 445,440 or 86.8 per cent of adults have taken a first dose, while some 345,089 or 67.3 per cent of persons are fully vaccinated.
For the 12 and 17 grouping, 35,487 first doses or 48.7 per cent and 25,981 or 35.6 per cent second doses have been administered.
Vaccination for children in the five to 11 category shows 7049 first doses or 6.9 per cent. Only 2159 or 2.1 per cent have returned for their second shot. In addition, 71,696 persons have returned for their booster shots thus far.
According to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recent figures, some 585 million confirmed cases were reported globally along with over 6.4 million deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 172 million while the death toll in the region has gone up to 2.7 million.
If anyone is displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19 or needs any additional information, they are asked to contact the COVID-19 Hotline 231-1166, 226-7480 or 624-6674 immediately or visit www.health.gov.gy. (G12)