Guyana surpasses 50,000 COVID-19 vaccinations
– records the highest number of infections in 24 hours
Kaieteur News – Former Health Minister and current Ministry of Health Advisor, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, that Guyana has exceeded 50,000 vaccinations in the Government’s ongoing COVID-19 immunization campaign.
In a Facebook post, Dr. Ramsammy “It’s still a long way to go, but it’s an important milestone. Thirty-one countries around the world have not yet given a single dose. “He added that Barbados is the only Caribbean country ahead of Guyana in its immunization campaign with over 60,000 people vaccinated so far. He predicted by this time next week, Guyana will be ranked number one in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for COVID-19 vaccinations.
Health worker receiving her vaccine
“This means that 10 out of every 100 Guyanese adults will have received a first dose. This puts Guyana ahead of most countries around the world. We want to make sure we vaccinate another 100,000 by the end of April. Help us, ”he also expressed.
While the effective introduction of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign may be good news for many Guyanese, the number of new cases reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday, through its daily dashboard update, remains a cause for concern. Yesterday’s dashboard revealed 135 new COVID-19 infections, which apparently break the recorded COVID-19 case record in just 24 hours. The new infections were recorded from a total of 2,344 tests, pushing the COVID-19 Guyana case toll to 10,853. The dashboard also shows that there are 13 patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, a further 10 in institutional quarantine, 69 in institutional isolation and 1,015 apart from home. About 9,517 people have recovered so far, with only 44 new recoveries recorded yesterday.
The MOH also announced two other COVID-19 deaths yesterday, two men; a 73-year-old man from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and a 59-year-old man from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), both having surrendered while being cared for in medical facilities. Guyana now has 252 COVID-19 deaths.
This announcement would have marked a recent surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths, which resulted in an average of two deaths and 75 new cases per day. Just eight days into the new month, 19 deaths have already been recorded, as well as, 604 new infections.
Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) continues to lead in the number of infections, with 5,165 confirmed cases. As the pandemic continues to affect Guyanese, as the government seeks herd immunity by the end of the year, people are being urged to take the opportunity to receive their injection of available COVID-19 vaccines , once they are eligible. As the vaccination program continues, more groups of people are being opened to qualify, with the most recent being people aged 40 and over.
In addition, Guyana has seen aggressive enforcement of the COVID-19 measures collected by the National Task Force COVID-19 with assistance from the Joint Services, in light of the high infection and death rate. The enforcement exercises are being carried out in an attempt to maximize compliance and curb the further spread of the virus.
COVID-19 Dashboard