– 16 persons receiving intensive care

THERE continues to be a rise in the number of novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, with local authorities recording 52 new cases within the past 24 hours.
According to statistics provided by the Ministry of Health, the authorities have so far tested 16,080 persons, with 12,494 proving negative and 3,521 positive. Available information shows that Regions Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and One (Barima-Waini) account for the highest number of cases, with 1,630 and 558 respectively.
And while 2,391 persons have recovered from this disease, 104 have died so far, and there are 1,026 active cases which include 118 persons in institutional isolation, 892 in home isolation, and 16 in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

Authorities have said that cases are being detected because more tests are being done. Sample taking was also increased across the country, because the authorities believed that many cases are going “under the radar”.

This suspicion had prompted the 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 and Four, as well as 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,” said Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony in a recent report.

The actual testing is being conducted centrally at the National Reference Laboratory, because regional facilities lack the capacity and technical skills needed to get it done. While the Government hopes to improve capacity in those regions, the immediate need for sample-testing takes precedence, especially with the high number of asymptomatic cases.
It was reported that processing time for samples taken from persons to test for the COVID-19 will be reduced from about eight hours to two to three hours, as the government has received a new automated Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing machine from China.