Guyana hits record high with 485 COVID-19 cases in one day

Jan 05, 2022 News

-2 fully vaccinated men are latest fatalities

Kaieteur News – Guyana has recorded 485 new COVID-19 cases—the highest number to be recorded in a day, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, revealed yesterday.
Even as Guyana hits a record in daily COVID-19 infections, the US has recorded more than one million new COVID-19 cases on Monday alone. The figure comes even as officials in the US warn that the peak of a fast-spreading Omicron surge is still to come.

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony.

A record 1,080,211 cases were reported in the US on Monday – the highest one-day tally of new cases anywhere in the world – the Johns Hopkins University announced.
The Omicron variant accounts for the majority of cases in the US.
The top US pandemic advisor Anthony Fauci has said the country is facing “almost a vertical increase” in cases. He said the peak may be weeks away.
In Guyana, Health Minister Dr. Anthony addressed concerns over the spread during an update yesterday. According to Dr. Anthony, the country’s massive surge in the rate of infection is a cause for concern.
He noted that, “In the last 24 hours we had (recorded) 485 new cases, so our active cases are now 1,824, so that’s a big jump. It’s probably the highest total we’ve had in a day and maybe these numbers would even go further.”
A breakdown of the new infection per region, according to the Ministry daily dashboard, revealed that Region One has a single new case, Region Two has 134, Region Three has 36, Region Four has 320, Region Five has three, Region Six has 62, Region Seven has one, Region Nine has 20 and Region 10 has 28.
Kaieteur News understands that as it relates to the active cases 1,138 are in Region Four, 272 in Region Six, 148 in Region Three, 41 in Region Two, 78 in Region Nine and 74 in Region 10.
In addition, the Ministry recorded two more deaths as a result of the virus. The number of deaths takes the toll from the pandemic to 1058 fatalities. According to the Health Ministry the deaths are of two fully vaccinated men – a 60-year-old from Region Four and a 38-year-old from Region Six. Dr. Anthony had previously revealed that based on the rate the virus is being spread it is highly likely that the contagious Omicron variant has entered Guyana. He also noted that this trend is expected to continue as this variant is “highly contagious” and doubles every four days or so.
Dr. Anthony noted that the ministry is awaiting the test results because, the samples have been collected but they have not been processed as yet to confirm Guyana’s status as it relates to the omicron variant.
In the meantime, the Health Minister said that on the East Bank of Demerara at Diamond, 43 people are infected, 33 at Providence, 20 in Grove, and 17 at Herstelling. On the East Coast, he revealed 17 infections were recorded in Non Pareil, 49 in Kitty, 36 in Sophia, 35 in Lodge, and 27 in La Penitence.
The Minister said that there are cases in all the wards. “…In other Regions, New Amsterdam recorded 66 cases, Lethem 45, Bartica 21 and Wismar 26. Right now, we have 64 persons in the [COVID] hospital. Over the last 24 hours I think we had about 10 persons that came into the different hospitals. We currently have 36 new persons at the Ocean View Hospital, with eight of those persons in the ICU and a few of those persons are intubated. All of them are receiving oxygen but I think two of them are intubated,” Dr. Anthony said.
As it relates to vaccination numbers, the Minister said this largely remains the same, but with a slight increase in first dose uptake which now stands at 80.3 percent of the adult population while boosters’ uptake has also improved.
“Boosters have been going up incrementally, so today, we are at 12,306, booster doses but we still have a long way to go because of the persons who would have received their second dose. This is just a very small portion of that so we still have a very long way to go in ensuring that more people get their booster doses,” the health minister said.
Dr. Anthony also revealed that a number of staff from the GPHC have tested positive for the virus and are being closely monitored. “There are a number of persons who have tested positive, both doctors and medical staff. We have been constantly monitoring and we have taken mitigation measures so it has not had a big impact so far on service delivery, but if more and more people get sick, well then obviously it’s going to have an impact,” Dr. Anthony said.
He noted that most of those affected are either asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic and are expected to return to work shortly.