Over 900 COVID cases in five days

Jan 04, 2022 News

-as Health Officials suspect ‘Omicron variant’ in Guyana

oKaieteur News – Over the past five days, local health authorities have recorded a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases across the country. To be precise, a total of 909 new cases were recorded from December 29, 2021 to January 2.
According to Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, health officials started to see the change in cases after the busy festive season was coming to end.
During his daily COVID-19 update yesterday, the Minister said that with the increasing numbers in new cases, he suspects that the Omicron variant is already in Guyana.
The Omicron variant which has over 30 mutations was noted to be more transmissible than that of the Delta variant. Already it has reached neighbouring Brazil and was detected in the Caribbean Region.
“So we start closing the end of the year with cases going up and then on the 1st of January that went even further to 209, then yesterday (Monday) it was 284, so there is an upward trend in these cases. Again, we suspect that we might have the omicron variant that is in circulation in Guyana, because based on these, we know that in other countries with Omicron it’s highly contagious, so the numbers would keep multiplying every two to four days, you will have an increase in these numbers,” the Minister explained.
It was noted too that in order to test for the new variant, the country does not have the capacity to do so, samples would have to be taken and send abroad for testing.
Nevertheless, Dr. Anthony is encouraging the general public to continue to follow all COVID-19 measures that was put in place to safeguard themselves and for those unvaccinated to get vaccinated.

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony.

He also noted that hospitals are also prepared and equipped to deal with the incidence of higher hospitalisation rates and cases, if persons are to get severely sick.
“We need to be extra vigilant, the same public health measures that we have been talking about, we have to practice them, they are not going to protect you if you are not practising them,” the Minister warned.
Calling for Guyanese to safeguard themselves, through the pandemic, was President Irfaan Ali in his New Year message.
“I use this opportunity to call on unvaccinated persons to overcome their fear of inoculation. The evidence from both within Guyana and across the global community is that vaccines save lives and give protection against new variants such as Omicron, which is far more transmissible than the original virus and its Delta variant,” the President said.
The President noted that his government would continue to source all equipment and vaccines to help curb the infections.
“No effort will be spared until the pandemic is ended here and everywhere else in the world. We all want a life free of fear and free of masks; a life in which we can mix freely, embrace our elderly, travel to see our families, and welcome our relatives and friends to our homes. But none of this will be possible with any level of comfort and safety,” he added.