By Navendra Seoraj
GUYANA’S capacity to treat critical novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients will be boosted in the coming week, as Government moves to activate the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the infectious diseases hospital.
The facility, located at the site of the former Ocean View Hotel in Liliendaal, has been catering for mild patients over the past two months, but with work almost completed on the ICU, it will be able to cater for 29 critically ill patients at any given time.

As it is now, the country has only one COVID-19 ICU, and this is located at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

“Our expectation is that this week we will substantially complete the ICU at the Ocean View facility… most things are in place and the staff of GPHC and the contractors are trying to finish it off this week,” said Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, during Tuesday’s edition of the daily COVID-19 update.

After the facility is completed, authorities will start the process of transferring persons from GPHC, which currently has nine patients in its COVID-19 ICU.

“We would be able to accommodate 25-29 ICU beds and that is more than GPHC which has a current capacity of around 14 beds… we will have a substantially bigger ICU and all medical personnel would be available at this facility,” said Minister Anthony.

Overall, the infectious diseases hospital will have 109 beds, so authorities envisage that there would be enough capacity to treat both mild and critically ill patients.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the most common symptoms of COVID-19 are fever, dry cough, and tiredness. Other symptoms that are less common and may affect some patients include aches and pains, nasal congestion, headache, conjunctivitis, sore throat, diarrhea, loss of taste or smell or a rash on skin or discoloration of fingers or toes.

These symptoms, WHO said, are usually mild and progress gradually. Some people become infected but only have very mild symptoms.

And, although 80 per cent of the persons who contract COVID-19 recover from the disease without needing hospital treatment, around one in every five person who gets this disease becomes seriously ill and develops difficulty breathing.

Older people, and those with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart and lung problems, diabetes, or cancer, are at higher risk of developing serious illness. However, anyone can contract COVID-19 and become seriously ill.

So far, GPHC, in addition to providing intensive care and treatment to COVID-19 patients, also manages other routine ailments, and given that cases were recorded in every region across the country, there were also times when persons had to travel to Georgetown to get treatment.

In recognising the burden being placed on GPHC and the need for intensive care, the Government, in addition to developing an ICU facility at Liliendaal, has committed to retrofitting health facilities in various regions, so that they could administer care to patients who develop the severe forms of COVID-19.