Dear Editor,
COVID-19, the disease caused by SARs-CoV-2, is wreaking havoc on people’s lives and the economy. In fact, Guyana’s economy is now the victim of a triple-whammy: COVID-19, the rigged 2 March 2020 general election and the steep decline of the price of oil.
I do understand that available staff is stretched thin, but data is being collected. I note from yesterday’s issue of SN that there are 57 confirmed COVID-19 cases and that 260 persons have been tested between 26 February to 16 April. This means that 22 percent of those tested were infected by the novel coronavirus, which is slightly above the positivity-rate (those tested positive) for the US. Six of the 57 COVID-19 cases passed away 9 have recovered.
The main purpose of this letter is make a plea: it would be great if the data on COVID-19 deaths can be broken down in more detail: sex, age, race, region, and place of death (hospital, home, etc). The same level of disaggregation (except for death) for those tested and those recovered would be useful but will impose an additional burden upon already limited staffing capacity. Such data would facilitate analyses once the disease is over and could be provide useful insights if the disease strikes again, as well as for infection by other pathogens.
Yours faithfully,
Ramesh Gampat
