Most COVID deaths from Regions 3 and 4
A total of 998 people have died since March 2020 after they were infected with COVID-19 and more than half of those deaths were recorded from Regions Three and Four.
Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) has the highest regional COVID-19 death toll. The region has recorded 479 deaths since March 2020; this is followed by Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) with 148 deaths.
The information was provided by Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Thursday during his daily COVID-19 Update. The death toll in the other regions are as follows; Region One (47), Region Two (43), Region Five (54), Region Six (89), Region Seven (44), Region Eight (7), Region Nine (23) and Region Ten (64).
The country recorded one new COVID-19 death within the last 24 hours.
Meanwhile, there are currently, 1, 283 active cases in the country with the majority in Region Four (628 cases), this is followed by Region Six (244 cases) and Region Three (221 cases).
VACCINATION
The local health authorities have decided to provide booster doses to people over 50 years old and to anyone who has underlying medical conditions (comorbidities) and is aged 18 years or older.
Persons who have received both doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine are eligible for a single dose of the US-made Pfizer vaccine as a booster shot.
Persons who are vaccinated with the Sputnik V vaccine can receive the single-dose Johnson and Johnson (J&J) vaccine as a booster dose.
For persons who received two doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, the booster dose will also be Sinopharm, six months after the second dose.
The Johnson and Johnson jab is being offered two months after the first dose as a booster shot. So far, 1, 914 booster doses have been administered.
“I think it is now picking up a lot of people are now coming forward, initially it started out very slow,” Dr Anthony said.
To date, 78.4 per cent of the adult population received one dose of a COVID vaccine while 54.7 per cent received two doses.
For children ages 12 to 18, the health minister said that many persons have not been coming forward to get vaccinated. Only 40.2 per cent of the population received their first dose vaccine and 28.2 per cent received their second dose.