Latest update March 30th, 2025 12:59 AM
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Thirteen out of sixteen beds at GPHC’s COVID-19 ICU occupied
Thirteen out of sixteen beds at the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) are now occupied. The increase in occupancy at the GPHC’S COVID-19 ICU comes in wake of a rise in cases of the disease.
Over the past two weeks, Guyana’s COVID-19 infections have jumped from 639 to 955 cases, with an average of 30 positive cases being recorded daily due to increased testing.
In light of those numbers, GPHC’s Communications Officer, Chelauna Providence said that the hospital administration has been examining how it can expand the COVID ICU. She explained too that GPHC is the only medical facility in the country with a COVID-19 ICU.
“We have other spaces that can be used if the need arises. For instance, there is the transition ward that is currently in use for COVID -19 patients transitioning to recovery. We can easily transform that facility to accommodate those in need of intensive care,” she explained.
Thirteen out of sixteen beds at GPHC’s COVID-19 ICU occupied
The nation’s growing COVID -19 numbers have raised concerns among the population about Guyana’s capability to treat people infected by the deadly disease. To address the concerns, President Dr. Mohamed Irfaan Ali announced last week that the Government is pursuing delivering relief to the strained health system and workers based on recommendations from Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.
Dr. Anthony had advised among other things that a number of interventions have been made to improve test turnaround time, testing capability, human resource capacity, infrastructure, and equipment of the health sector to deal with COVID-19.
As such, Dr. Ali said that the Government moved to improve capabilities from a position of 40-60 per day to 96-140 per day. Notwithstanding this significant improvement, he said that there is a backlog of 700 test results.
“In addition, two new automatic machines will be sourced to cut testing turnaround time from nine hours to two hours. This will not only clear the backlog but significantly improve our capacity to do mass testing, which will become necessary in the eventual opening up of our economy and country,” the President said.
In terms of the essential medical supplies, he announced that the government has moved to procure an additional 100,000 N-95 masks.
“We currently have four working ventilators at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). By this week, 29 additional ventilators will be in the country to be utilized not only at GPHC but in all the regions. The Ministry has also advised that additional healthcare personnel including doctors have been deployed to hotspot areas in Regions Seven and Nine,” the President added.
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