Despite efforts to improve COVID-19 vaccination and testing statistics in Region Ten, its numbers remain the lowest in the country, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony has said.
In his COVID-19 update on Friday, Anthony disclosed that only 5,963 persons in Region Ten have received a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The figure represents 20.7% of the region’s adult population. He added that of that number, only 2,588, which accounts for 9.4% of the region’s population, have been fully vaccinated.
He further disclosed that only 8,255 persons in the region have been tested for the virus thus far, while noting this number is extremely low given that the national total is 251,230.
According to Anthony, many persons, whether asymptomatic or not, have refused to take advantage of testing sites that the Ministry have established in the area. Vaccination sites are no different.
“[Testing} is relatively low in Region Ten because many people are not coming forward to get tested. Ideally people ought to know their status, especially if [they] have been exposed to anyone. So far, we have been able to detect 1,585 persons who are positive,” he said.
He noted that 208 persons who tested positive were hospitalized, with some being in a very critical condition that led to them to being transferred to the Infectious Disease Hospital. So far, 47 persons from Region Ten have died from the virus.
Anthony said that persons are being misinformed that persons from the region are not dying from COVID-19 so they don’t need to get vaccinated. This, he said, is one of the factors that contributes to vaccine hesitancy in the region.
“This is totally untrue!” Anthony said before adding that most of the time vaccination sites are empty.
He added, “That remains a challenge and I do hope that leaders in Region Ten would really step up to actually help protect the lives of people in the region and get them to get vaccinated. With current strains, the virus is more aggressive so people who are unvaccinated will end up in the hospital.”
The minister noted that the low numbers do not mean that the virus is not in the region, but instead show that persons are not taking the virus seriously despite efforts to improve the statistics.
Region Eight also has a low vaccination rate, with only 38% of the adult population receiving a first dose and 23% a second dose.
As of Thursday, 298,248 persons, which is 58.1% of the adult population in Guyana, have received a first dose of a COVID-19, and 152,992 has received a second dose.
