The authorities over the past few days have seen a gradual decline in the number of active COVID-19 cases in Guyana, however, the Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony continues to plead with people to get vaccinated.
Currently, there are just over 1,500 active cases, a huge drop from the 12,000 active cases in January.
“The peak that we had in January, this is gradually dropping and these numbers – 1, 537 (active cases) – represent a further drop in cases,” Dr Anthony revealed during his daily COVID-19 update on Tuesday.
Guyana recorded a rapid increase in cases between December 2021 and January 2022, and health authorities linked it to the presence of the Omicron variant.
But the authorities are yet to officially confirm the presence of this highly transmissible variant here. Some 20 samples were recently sent to Trinidad and Tobago to test for the variant and the results are expected within three weeks.
There are currently 71 patients hospitalised with the virus, 51 are at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, and of that number, seven are in the ICU.
As of Tuesday, 428, 991 (83.6 per cent) of the adult population received their first dose vaccine and 322, 465 (62.9 per cent) received their second dose.
In terms of the vaccine rollout in children aged 12 to 17, 33, 174 (45.5 per cent) received their first dose and 23, 705 (32.6 per cent) received their second dose.
Meanwhile, a total of 46, 609 booster doses have been administered thus far.
Minister Anthony was asked about plans to roll out a second booster jab, and in response, he said there is a huge challenge in getting people to even take a first dose and so, a second booster jab would not be considered at this time.
“Israel is one of the first countries to start administering second booster dose or the fourth shot and we are now seeing some of those preliminary results.
“Right now, our efforts are really to make sure that persons who have not been vaccinated, to try to get them vaccinated,” Minister Anthony explained.
