Guyana’s active COVID-19 cases have increased to 12, 355 after 819 more people tested positive within 24-hours and according to the Ministry of Health, 55, 429 COVID tests were conducted in the first 19 days of the year.
“Right now we have 12, 355 active cases and over the last 24-hours we would have done 2, 541 tests and of those tested, we had 819 persons who would have tested positive,” Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony revealed on Thursday during his daily COVID-19 Update.
Dr Anthony noted that there are 145 patients hospitalised with the virus across Guyana, but the majority are at the Infectious Diseases Hospital with 16 in the Intensive Care Unit.
He said there are active cases in all ten administrative regions: Region One (134); Region Three (1, 935); Region Four (7,512); Region Five (388); Region Six (600); Region Seven (269); Region Eight (50); Region Nine (365) and Region Ten (754).
Meanwhile, there has been a significant increase in testing this year; as matter of fact, a total of 55, 429 tests were conducted in the first 19 days of January.
In 2020, a total of 38, 548 tests were done while a total of 387, 266 tests were conducted in 2021. This means about 32, 000 tests were done per month.
“You can see in January of this year, we would have exceeded all of those numbers in terms of testing, so we have been testing quite a lot,” Dr Anthony said.
While the government will continue to do testing, “a proper and targeted” use of these tests is now being implemented.
Only symptomatic persons will be tested using the antigen test and if positive, a repeat PCR test will not be done. In terms of PCR testing, only patients in hospitals and those accessing emergency services, as well as high-risk persons, will be tested.
“This is very important because what we see is persons coming and clogging up the system, not having any symptoms, just believing that they should be tested and might not have been exposed,” Dr Anthony stressed.
Vaccination
“In terms of vaccination, we continue to see a steady increase,” Dr Anthony said.
For the first dose adults, 81.8 per cent received the jab while 59.8 per cent received their second dose. For children aged 12 to 17, 43.9 per cent received their first dose and 30.9 per cent received their second dose.
Booster shots have now increased to 31, 124.
With a massive surge in COVID-19 cases, Guyana suspects that the Omicron variant of the coronavirus is here as the authorities are awaiting confirmation.
“If you want to fight Omicron, it is not just first dose vaccine, you got to get the second dose and you also have to get your booster dose,” Dr Anthony urged.
Recently, there have been scores of persons flocking the Umana Yana in Georgetown for testing and to collect their results. But Dr Anthony advised persons to seek other health centres in Georgetown for these services.
“You don’t have to go to just one site, you have health centres in your community that are able to do antigen testing, so please go to those health centres that are nearest to you instead of going to one site.”
COVID Hotspots
Region One – Mabaruma (41 cases)
Region Three
Parfaite Harmonie (198 cases)
Tuschen (122 cases)
Pouderoyen (82 cases)
Crane (75 cases)
Goed Fortuin (65 cases)
Uitvlugt (63 cases)
Cornelia Ida (60 cases)
Westminster (53 cases)
La Grange (53 cases)
Region Four
Diamond (248 cases)
Grove (197 cases)
Eccles (117 cases)
Herstelling (109 cases)
Providence (105 cases)
Mocha (55 cases)
Soesdyke (44 cases)
Non Pareil (74 cases)
Mon repos (62 cases)
Better Hope (60 cases)
Haslington (57 cases)
Paradise (50 cases)
Georgetown
Kitty (406 cases)
Sophia (310 cases)
South Ruimveldt (245 cases)
Campbellville (222 cases)
Cummings (220 cases)
Lodge (140 cases)
West Ruimveldt (138 cases)
Turkeyen (113 cases)
