–359 samples processed by CARPHA

A 79-year-old male from Region Nine has lost his life to the dreaded novel coronavirus (COVID-19), taking the death toll to 47.
Health authorities said the man died while receiving care at a local medical facility. The test sample was collected from the patient at the time of admission and he tested positive for COVID-19 subsequently.

The Ministry of Health expressed sincerest condolences to the families of the deceased and committed to making every effort to provide all the necessary support, during this difficult time.
Officials of the ministry have since contacted all relatives and persons to facilitate contact tracing and rapid assistance to everyone who might have been exposed to the deceased. The ministry is also appealing to the general public to respect the confidentiality of the deceased and his family and to allow them to mourn their tragic loss in peace.

Authorities have so far tested 9,762 persons for COVID-19 to date. The total includes a portion of tests sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) on August 31, to help clear some of the existing backlog of samples, which were accumulated over the past several weeks.
Last week, 500 COVID-19 test samples were dispatched to the CARPHA Medical Microbiology Laboratory (CMML) to help Guyana speed up the delivery of COVID-19 test results. Out of the 500 samples sent to CARPHA, 359 test results were processed thus far and the results were made available to local authorities over the weekend.

At present, samples can be sent to CARPHA only from the NPHRL in Guyana. Once a sample is sent to CMML, CARPHA issues the results to the Chief Medical Officers at the respective Ministries of Health in the region, who are responsible for the dissemination of those results.
The CMML currently tests all suspected cases of COVID-19, as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO) case definition, provided by the WHO Global surveillance for COVID-19 caused by human infection with COVID-19 virus.

The CMML uses the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) method, which is recommended by the WHO. This method remains the gold standard for COVID-19 laboratory diagnosis, as the sensitivity and specificity of such tests are nearly 99.99 per cent accurate.

The CMML ensures appropriate quality control measures are followed to guarantee the accuracy of all results.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, has expressed appreciation to CARPHA for its continued technical support and assistance to Guyana during the COVID-19 pandemic.