COVID-19 self-testing may soon become an option for Guyanese as it may be among the solutions to curb the spread of the virus, says the Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony.
A total of 62,360 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Guyana thus far, with 95 being registered on Tuesday. Nineteen of those cases are from Region One, 8 from Region Two, 5 from Region Three, 25 from Region Four, 1 each from Region Five and Seven, 6 from Region Six, 18 from Region Eight, 10 from Region Nine and 2 from Region Ten.
Three more persons have also died, increasing the number of deaths in the country to 1, 199. The three deceased have been identified as a 54-year-old fully vaccinated man from Region Four, a 55-year-old woman from Region Three, whose vaccination status is unknown and a 69-year-old unvaccinated man from Region Six.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) dashboard states that 1,960 tests new tests have been conducted. However, with stigmatisation a reason preventing persons from getting tested, this may not be an accurate number – an issue that self-testing may solve, says Anthony.
The United States (US) Centers for Disease Control (CDC) states that self-testing for COVID-19 gives rapid results and can be taken anywhere, regardless of vaccination status or whether or not a person has symptoms.
“They detect current infection and are sometimes also called “home tests,” “at-home tests,” or over-the-counter (OTC) tests.” In addition, self-tests do not detect antibodies which would suggest a previous infection and do not measure a person’s level of immunity.
“Self-testing kits are very accurate and allows persons to know their status especially [those] in at-risk environments so it is not something we are not going to encourage,” Anthony said during his COVID-19 update yesterday.
Should a person test positive, they would be aware that they need to isolate, says Anthony. More importantly, however, knowing their COVID-19 status would reduce the amount of Guyanese who are unknowingly infected with the virus.
Anthony notes that the Ministry will be looking to procure self-testing kits as it would be one way of curbing the spread of the virus. “This is something we want to encourage. People should get the self-testing kit and use them to know their status,” Anthony said. However, a source at the Ministry said that persons have already begun using self-testing kits, although it is yet to be recognized by the government.
Meanwhile, the minister said that there are 1537 active cases, noting the numbers are dropping when compared to January. Currently, there are 71 persons in the hospital with 51 admitted in the Infectious Disease Hospital and 7 persons in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Some 428,491 of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered as a first dose to Guyanese population, while 322, 465 have received a second dose. For persons ages twelve to seventeen, the Ministry of Health has administered 33,174, as a first dose and 23,795 as second doses. Thus far, only 46, 609 persons have received a booster shots.
“This is an area we need to focus on. [We] have to get more people their booster shots, especially for older persons,” Anthony notes.
He disclosed that the Ministry is seeing a paradox as persons from 49-50 have been getting their booster shots but older persons have not. “Older persons have more co-morbidities so they are the ones who need to get their booster shots,” he said.
