— 18 new COVID-19 cases recorded

THE Ministry of Health has cleared 306 persons from isolation, in accordance with updated guidelines released by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Guyana recorded 18 new cases over the past 24 hours, as the numbers climbed to 649, with the deaths related to COVID-19 remaining at 22. As of August 14, the number of persons tested was 5,809 with 5,160 persons being negative.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, said there are 104 persons in institutional isolation, 73 in institutional quarantine and six persons in the COVID-19 ICU, while the remainder is in approved home isolation.

“To date, 306 persons have recovered as defined by the new WHO guidelines for releasing COVID-19 patients from isolation,” said the CMO.

Although the new guidelines apply, Dr. Persaud urged persons to be mindful that there were 59 new cases over the period August 10 to 14. These cases came from Regions Nine, Four, Seven and 10.

As seen here, there continues to be a steady rise in the number of COVID-19 cases, and even though the situation is grim, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, believes that cases have been going “under the radar”.

Many persons have tested positive for the disease in recent times, but a large number of those persons were asymptomatic, meaning they did not show symptoms of the disease.

This discovery has since prompted authorities to distribute more sample kits across the country, especially to regions where the infection rate is high. Most of the cases have so far been recorded in Regions One, Four, Seven and Nine.

“We are sending out more kits, so there will be an increase in sample collection…the testing itself has components…one is sample collection and then there is the processing of samples,” said Minister Anthony in an invited comment, on Thursday. The actual testing will be done centrally, at the National Reference Laboratory because regional facilities lack the capacity and technical skills needed to get it done.

While government hopes to improve capacity in those regions, the immediate need for sample testing takes precedence, especially with the high number of asymptomatic cases.

“We will be doing it in hotspot regions, but we will also do it in regions which have not shown any cases because we suspect that it is because we are not testing in those regions, it is showing zero.
“Technical people believe once we start testing in those regions or giving people an option to come in and get tested, we might see there are positive cases,” said Minister Anthony.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most people, who fall sick with COVID-19, will experience mild to moderate symptoms and recover without special treatment.