Days after Guyana reported its highest number of positive COVID-19 cases, the country has shattered the record with a total of 1, 019 new infections within 24-hours.
Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony on Wednesday said that the total number of active cases has now increased to 7, 613.
It is suspected that the record number of cases being reported is a result of the Omicron variant but the local authorities are yet to confirm the presence of this highly transmissible variant.
During his daily COVID-19 update, Dr Anthony revealed that the majority of the active cases are from regions on the coastland.
There are 4, 878 active cases in Region Four, 912 active cases in Region Three and 561 active cases in Region Six.
Currently, there are 98 persons hospitalised across the country; 64 patients are at the Infectious Diseases Hospital with 13 in the Intensive Care Unit.
The Health Minister continues to urge persons that if they have been exposed to someone who tested positive for the virus, they should wait for at least five days before they get tested.
“We have had a challenge since we have seen the Omicron surge, as soon as somebody is infected – well not even infected – if there was somebody who has tested positive let’s say in a work environment, then all the co-workers whether they have been directly exposed or not, everybody immediately want to be tested and they show up at our sites and when they do so, they are putting an undue burden on the testing system,” Dr Anthony explained.
He further explained that it will take about five days for a PCR test to pick up the virus and that the rapid antigen test “works best when the person is symptomatic.”
Further, “I think people need to understand that, so if they truly want to find out about their status whether they are negative or positive they must first of all quarantine for a couple of days and then come to do the test.”
Meanwhile, to date, 81 per cent of the adult population received their first dose of a COVID vaccine while 58.9 per cent received their second dose. In terms of the vaccine rollout in the 12 to 17 age group, 43 per cent received their first dose and 30.4 per cent received their second dose.
A total of 20, 730 persons also received their booster shots.
