– 43 new cases recorded in 24 hours

GUYANA has received the first batch of results from the 500 samples sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), but authorities said those results are still being processed and will be released soon.
The country had sent 500 samples to CARPHA, as part of an effort to reduce a backlog of samples in the system.
“We started receiving back results, but we did not get back all… we got the first batch but they are now processing the results,” said Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, on Saturday.

Guyana has so far recorded 1,459 cases of COVID-19 with 43 of those cases being recorded in the past 24 hours alone. But 921 of those persons have since recovered while 46 persons have lost their lives. Of the remaining cases, 53 persons are in institutional isolation and 423 are in home isolation while 16 persons are being treated in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

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.
The WHO had said that 81 per cent of persons, who contract COVID-19, will have mild symptoms while 14 per cent will have severe symptoms and five per cent will need intensive care.

Although the situation is already grim, there is still a backlog of close to 1,000 samples which are yet to be tested. Government had said that it plans to send 500 more samples to CARPHA on Monday.

The emergence of asymptomatic cases had 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 (Barima-Waini), Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo).

“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,” the minister said.

To this end, sample-taking sites have been established across the country, especially in ‘hotspot’ areas.
It is clear that COVID-19 remains a threat to everyone in all areas of Guyana, but within the last few days, there have been lots of concerns about testing and laboratory confirmation of COVID-19.