Health Ministry had excluded six COVID-19 deaths from its reporting over two weeks

May 09, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – A recent announcement by the Ministry of Health (MOH) has revealed that it has been under-reporting COVID-19 deaths as far back as April 25.
Yesterday, the Ministry announced the deaths of three persons; a 68-year-old woman from Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and two males, a 34-year-old from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) and another 52-year-old from Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara). In its Press Release, it was stated that they all died on May 7, while receiving treatment at a medical facility.
Subsequently, it was reported that an additional six COVID-19 fatalities in which it failed to report from April 25 to May 6, ultimately taking the country’s death toll to 323 deaths.
According to the Ministry’s presented figures, on April 25, a 79-year old woman from Region Four succumbed; on May 2, a 54-year-old woman from Region Six (East Berbice- Corentyne); on May 3, a 79-year-old man from Region Four; on May 5, two males- a 56-year-old from Region Four and a 57-year-old from Region Six; and on May 6, a 43-year-old man from Region Four.
The Ministry would have just noted that, “The patients were admitted with COVID-19 like symptoms but died while receiving care at our medical institutions. Samples were taken at the time of admission which subsequently returned positive tests.” Efforts made to contact health officials were futile; however, the additional six deaths have since been accounted for in yesterday’s daily dashboard update.
As previously reported by Kaieteur News, April was named the deadliest month since the start of the pandemic in March last year. As the month ended, some 65 deaths were recorded, but with the additional death that was not reported, April’s death toll has now increased to 66 deaths.
The MOH reported 130 new infections via its daily dashboard update yesterday, which shows the total number of confirmed cases increased to 14,203.
The dashboard also shows that 17 patients are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, another 17 in institutional quarantine, 100 in institutional isolation and 1,691 in home isolation. Additionally, a total of 12,072 persons have recovered to date with 144 new recoveries recorded yesterday.

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