–two deaths, 76 new cases recorded over 24-hour period

THERE has been a spike in the number of persons infected with the virus, COVID-19 in several communities across Guyana, according to Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony. During his daily COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Minister Anthony highlighted that testing and monitoring will be continued in Moraikobai Village, where a spike was noticed recently.

Already, 84 persons who were infected in that community have been discharged from home isolation, since they completed the minimum 10-day isolation period. There are currently nine active cases there. It was previously reported that residents were not cooperating with the health authorities, as they were resisting efforts geared at testing more persons to establish the prevalence of the virus. But a medical team will be staying in the village for a few weeks.

There have also been spikes in New Amsterdam, in Region Six; Waramadong, in the Upper Mazaruni area of Region Seven; and St. Cuthbert’s Mission on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway. In New Amsterdam and Waramadong, the health authorities have been successfully managing the spike in infected persons. There are 20 cases in St. Cuthbert’s Mission, currently. This indigenous community had a spike in cases before, which prompted a ‘lockdown’ of the village. On Friday, a health team returned to the community to conduct an additional appraisal of the situation there to ascertain what the driving factors causing the spike in the community are.

NEW CASES

The Guyana Chronicle has been reliably informed that there have been two additional deaths caused by the coronavirus in Guyana. A 60-year-old man from Turkeyen, and another man from Berbice are the latest fatalities, taking the local death toll to 172.

The Health Ministry’s COVID-19 Dashboard for January 22, however, does not reflect these two deaths, and still states that the number of deaths locally is 170.

Nevertheless, this dashboard indicates that there have been 76 new cases recorded from 438 tests done over a 24-hour period. These new cases take the country’s total to 7,143 cases recorded since March 2020. Importantly, 6,328 of the persons infected have recovered thus far, an additional 51 persons over the 24-hour period.

The new cases were recorded in Region One (four), Region Three (five), Region Four (56), Region Five (one), Region Six (six) and Region Eight (one), Region Nine (one) and Region 10 (two). They were recorded from 165 tests conducted. There are also 656 active cases, seven of which are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 604 in home isolation, 11 in institutional quarantine, and 34 in institutional isolation.

The updated COVID–19 Emergency Measures are in force from January 1, 2021 until January 31, 2021. They may be extended or amended by notice of the Minister of Health, after an assessment of the prevailing public health conditions of the pandemic.

As per the current measures, however, all persons are required to wear face masks when leaving their homes. Physical distancing and adequate sanitisation are also important. The current curfew time is 22:30hrs to 04:00hrs. Persons with symptoms of COVID-19 are asked to call the COVID-19 hotline numbers: 231-1166; 226-7480; or 180/181 for assistance.