Two fully vaccinated persons with co-morbidities succumb to COVID-19

Sep 02, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Two fully vaccinated patients have succumbed to health complications as a result of COVID-19.
However, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, confirmed yesterday that the deceased persons had co-morbidities – diabetes and hypertension, in addition to other ailments which were all contributing factors.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

Both patients were elderly men ages 73 and 81 years old. The 73 year-old man passed away on August 12 and the 81-year-old man passed away on August 25.
Both men were admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, East Demerara. They died while requiring aid to breathe through the hospital’s ventilators. Minister Anthony noted that the patients were “extremely sick” and as a result, they died. He however insisted that this was not because of “the COVID-19 virus alone.”
In the meantime, Minister Anthony expressed concern over the spike in new cases. “The numbers are climbing, we are seeing more people getting infected and it is also very worrying because if we don’t manage this carefully our hospitals can easily become overwhelmed… It is going to be challenging going forward as we get more and more hospitalisation. We have already spoken about other contingencies, and if it becomes necessary, close some of the services at some other hospitals and convert those hospitals solely for COVID hospital patients,” Dr. Anthony added.
His comments came even as Guyana recorded 222 new infections over the past 24 hours, taking the overall number of confirmed cases to 25,770.
The new cases were reported in Region One – one case, Region Two – 10 cases, Region Three -33 cases, Region Four -131 new cases, Region Five – nine cases, Region Six – three cases, Region Seven – 20 cases, Region Nine – two cases and Region 10 – 13 cases.
In addition, the Ministry recorded two more COVID-19 deaths yesterday, putting the country’s overall death toll at 624.
According to the Ministry of Health, the latest fatalities are that of a 70-year-old woman from Region 10 (Upper Demerara-Berbice) and a 95-year-old man from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) who both died while receiving care at a medical facility on August 31.
Meanwhile, there are now 34 patients in the ICU at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, 107 are in institutional isolation and 1,809 are in home isolation.
Thus far, 23,196 patients have recovered from the virus.