Guyana has recorded its 10th COVID-19-related death while one new case was confirmed as the Chief Medical Officer said that local cluster transmission is taking place.
Yesterday, there was no live update of the COVID-19 situation in Guyana, however, the new statistics were posted via the Ministry of Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard. Although it clearly showed the change in the number of deaths, no other information about the death was provided to the public or members of the media.
The dashboard showed that one new case was recorded bringing Guy-ana’s positive confirmed cases number to 93 even as 41 more persons were tested between Monday and yesterday. The total number of persons tested now stands at 680. The number of persons in institutional isolation is now at 56 while six persons are in institutional quarantine and three in the COVID-19 Intensive Care unit. The number of persons who have recovered from the virus remains at 27.
During a live interview on News Room’s “COVID-19 And You” programme, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud, disclosed that the ministry has increased testing for the virus in the country and they have observed that of the newer cases that have been recorded, some are less directly linked to the initial cases. This caused him to remark, “I think there is a little bit more than just the association with travel now and there are some local cluster transmissions taking place in Guyana.”
With that Dr Persaud noted that unless a more serious approach is taken to adhere to the measures put in place by the authorities, Guyana can expect to have cases rise to the estimate of 20,000 cases which was projected by the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). He went on to say that the disease seems to be having a detrimental effect on countries like Guyana where there exists a high prevalence of underlying medical conditions.
The Chief Medical Officer added that more of the newer cases are falling within the same hotspot areas that were identified previously even as he said that Georgetown continues to be the epicentre of the virus. “Most of the situations are in our more densely populated areas.” He further observed that with cluster transmission taking place in a number of areas, it might be necessary for Guyana to move to wider testing.
Dr Persaud confirmed that the one private laboratory that has been collecting samples and having them shipped out of Guyana for testing has received about 11 test results from their operations with one person being diagnosed positive. He mentioned that those are mandatorily reported to the Ministry of Public Health.
Additionally he inform-ed that the largest group that presents a challenge to the health authorities are the persons who may be asymptomatic. “To pick those up we really will have to advance this,” he said, while noting that following discussions with private health institutions, he would like to see a lot of persons targeted for testing for the virus. “Anyone you suspect from among your patients who are coming in even if it’s a heart attack patient or for some other reason… those persons should be sampled and tested as far as possible,” Dr Persaud declared.
