Four more persons have died due to COVID-19 amidst what the Health Ministry has acknowledged to be a “surge” in new cases, with the virus spreading faster and with deadlier results.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) on Friday informed that two more persons who were infected with COVID-19—a 45-year-old woman from Region Five and a 26-year-old man from Region Three—had died. On Saturday night, the confirmation of two more deaths—a 28-year-old man from Region Two, and an 81-year-old man from Region Seven—followed. With the deaths, the death toll in the first three days of the new month was 8, and the country’s overall death toll moved to 239.
In March, 34 persons who were infected with COVID-19 died, while the statistics released by the MoH on Saturday showed that there are over 1,000 active cases in the country at present, with the majority in home isolation.
“COVID-19 is still showing a strong presence in our country. In fact, like other countries in our Region and around the world, COVID-19 is showing another surge. Make no mistake, COVID-19 transmission is very active in Guyana right now. Every time one leaves home, you are at risk. Like in other countries, COVID-19 is also showing, during this new surge, that it spreads faster and it has become deadlier. Most worrisome, COVID-19 is now affecting younger people, and causing severe illnesses in persons, not only younger, but with no co-morbidities. COVID-19 is more dangerous now than at any time before,” the Health Ministry acknowledged in a statement on Friday.
A day earlier Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony blamed breaches of the public health guidelines for the increase in transmissions.
“…So, while we are doing vaccination and that is meant to certainly help, people still have to abide by the rules that we have out there or you’re going to get infected and a percentage of persons are going to end up in the hospital, and a percentage of those in the hospital are going to die,” he said during the COVID-19 update, while emphasising that people are dying because of the disease and unless everyone takes the outlined precautions, including wearing a mask and social distancing, the consequences will be dire.
Anthony also urged health workers to take every precaution necessary to safeguard their health and that of their patients even as the ministry acknowledged that several healthcare workers in Region 10 have been refusing the vaccine.
Meanwhile, the ministry’s COVID-19 dashboard on Saturday confirmed 94 new cases, taking th total number of cases recorded so far to 10,540. Of the new cases, 21 are from Region Three, 45 from Region Four, 4 from Region Five, 2 from Region Six, 12 from Region Seven and 10 from Region Ten.
It was also revealed that 77 persons were in institutional isolation, 999 person in home isolation and 10 persons in institutional quarantine. The dashboard stated that 9,215 persons who were infected with the virus have recovered.
Based on the dashboards released from last Sunday to yesterday, 5,356 tests were done and 468 persons tested positive for COVID-19.
