Three more persons who were infected with the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have died, taking the country’s death toll to 70.
In a statement yesterday afternoon, the ministry said that a 68th person, only identified as 74-year-old woman from Region One, had died from COVID-19.
Stabroek News was later informed that the ministry had confirmed two additional deaths. This would bring the total number of COVID-19 deaths in the country to 70. The 69th persons to die from COVID-19 is also from Region One. Up to press time, the ministry was still trying to determine which region the 70th deceased was from. These numbers will be reflected in today’s dashboard.
Meanwhile, according to the ministry’s daily COVID-19 dashboard, 35 additional cases of COVID-19 were confirmed yesterday. This brings the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana to 2,437. The additional cases were detected from the results of 60 samples that were released yesterday.
The dashboard also indicated that there are 16 persons in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 163 persons in institutional isolation, 830 persons in home isolation and 35 persons in institutional quarantine. Approximately 1,361 persons have recovered from the disease, according to the dashboard.
Despite the numbers reflected on the dashboard, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony during a COVID-19 update stated that almost 80% of confirmed cases have recovered and a little under 20% are active.
He added that it is important for people to know that Guyana has a remarkable recovery rate and that is something Guyanese should not lose sight of.
As it relates to the call for a total lockdown from many Guyanese, he stated that the ministry established a technical team with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and other technical specialists in the country. He says that the team meets on a weekly basis to do the epidemiological assessment of the impact the pandemic is having in Guyana.
“We not only look at the national trends, we look at what is happening in very region and based on those analyses, recommendations would be made to us about the direction in which we have to go… Many of the previous orders that we have issued were based on the guidance from this technical team that we have been working with. We will continue to be guided by their recommendation and [when] those recommendations come to me I would forward them and discuss them with the government,” he said.
Anthony also stressed that the recommendations are not made based on emotions but rather on what is happening in the country. He noted that it is important to find a balance between lives and livelihoods because they do not want anyone to get infected and have to be hospitalised or taken to the ICU.
However, he said the only way to eradicate the disease from the country is to follow all the necessary preventative measures.
