Guyana yesterday saw an alarming rise in new coronavirus cases by 44 with 38 of these in Region Nine.
Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo has seen a surge in cases after persons crossed the Brazilian border illegally and visited their communities.
The Ministry of Public Health’s (MoPH) COVID-19 dashboard yesterday reported the new cases.
Yesterday’s forty-four new cases came a day after the MoPH reported seventeen new cases.
According to regional health officer, Dr. Naail Uthman, a breakdown of yesterday’s cases showed three were from the village of Aranaputa, eleven (Wowetta), two (Rupertee), nine (Potarinau), three (Katuur), three (Baitoon), five (Lethem) and one each from the communities of Quiko and St. Ignatius.
Region Nine also accounted for ten of Saturday’s seventeen new positive COVID cases. The region is said to have a total of eighty-nine cases, eighty-four of which are active cases. The positive cases were confirmed from the 314 samples that were taken. Currently the results for 54 samples are outstanding.
Uthman noted that the Civil Defence Commission will be setting up pre-fab homes to accommodate cases in Lethem and other regional districts.
Chelauna Providence, Public Relations Officer for the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) said, that of the remaining six cases outside of Region Nine, one was a sample taken at the hospital.
The forty-four new cases bring Guyana’s total confirmed cases to 474, of which 268 are currently in institutional isolation. Thirty-eight persons are said to be in institutional quarantine while three persons remain in the ICU. Twenty-one persons have been confirmed to have died as a result of COVID.
