Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has gone up to 1237 after three more persons, including an infant, died in the past few days after testing positive for the novel coronavirus.
The latest fatalities are a three-month-old girl from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), who died on May 31, as well as a 71-year-old female from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), who also died on May 31 and a 41-year-old male from Region Four, who died on May 30. Both adults were unvaccinated at the time of their deaths.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also reported on Wednesday that a whopping 206 new COVID-19 cases were detected within a 24-hour period.
These now take the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 64,969. But only 777 of these are currently active cases, comprising three patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and the remaining 774 persons in isolation – 26 persons in institutional isolation and the other 748 persons in home isolation.
There are also six other persons in institutional quarantine.
Some 62,955 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus to date – 78 more recoveries than the figure reported the previous day.
Since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Guyana over two years ago, a total 632,204 tests have been conducted countrywide and of this number, some 29,885 males and 35,083 females were found to be positive.
Of the 206 new cases recorded on Wednesday, one was from Region One (Barima-Waini); 19 from Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam); eight from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara); a whopping 146 cases from Demerara-Mahaica; 12 from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice); 13 from East Berbice-Corentyne; six from Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) and the remaining one case from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice).
There were no new cases recorded in Regions Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) within the 24-hour reporting period.
Earlier this month, health authorities attributed this rapid increase in COVID-19 cases to the BA.2 subvariant of the Omicron strain circulating locally.
After a prolonged period of declining cases, the Guyana Government, back in March, removed most restrictions as the country moves to recover 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 are qualified to get their booster shots, in order to add a layer of protection against the virus.
The latest figures show that so far, more than 442,087 or 86.2 per cent of adults have taken a first dose, while some 341,687 or 66.6 per cent are fully vaccinated.
For adolescents between the ages of 12 and 17, just over 34,697 or 47.6 per cent of them have received their first dose, and of that number, some 25,427, or 34.9 per cent, are fully immunised.
In addition, in excess of 65,284 persons have returned for their third-dose booster shots thus far.
Meanwhile, Government will soon be rolling out the vaccination programme for children between the ages of five and 11 in Guyana with the arrival of 50,000 doses of the vaccine next week – a donation from the Government of Spain.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony said this batch of vaccines will cater for 25,000 children. The Government is also expecting a donation of vaccines for this age group through the COVAX mechanism.
According to recent figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO), some 527,603,107 confirmed cases were reported globally along with 6,290,452 deaths.
In the Region of the Americas, that is, Latin America and the Caribbean, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has increased to 157,217,991 while the death toll in the Region has gone up to 2,742,878.
As it relates to vaccination against COVID-19, WHO also reported that a total of 11,811,627,599 doses have been administered worldwide.