Guyana surpasses 50,000 COVID-19 vaccinations

Apr 09, 2021 News

– records highest number of infections in 24 hours

Kaieteur News – Former Minister of Health and current Advisor to the Ministry of Health, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy, yesterday announced that Guyana has surpassed 50,000 vaccinations in the Government’s on-going COVID-19 immunisation campaign.
In a Facebook post, Dr. Ramsammy noted that “It is still a far way to go, but it is an important milestone. Thirty-one countries around the world have not yet administered a single dose.” He added that Barbados is the only Caribbean country ahead of Guyana in its immunisation campaign with over 60,000 persons vaccinated to date. He predicted that by this time next week, Guyana will rank number one in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for COVID-19 vaccinations.

A health worker receiving her vaccine

“This means that 10 out of every 100 adult Guyanese will have received a first dose. This puts Guyana ahead of most countries around the world. We want to ensure that we vaccinate another 100,000 by the end of April. Help us,” he also expressed.
While the effective roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign may be good news for many Guyanese, the number of new cases reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) yesterday, via its daily dashboard update, remains concerning. Yesterday’s dashboard revealed 135 new COVID-19 infections, which seemingly breaks the record of COVID-19 cases recorded in just 24 hours. The new infections were recorded from a total of 2,344 tests, pushing Guyana’s COVID-19 case toll to 10,853. The dashboard also shows that 13 patients are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit, another 10 in institutional quarantine, 69 in institutional isolation and 1,015 in home isolation. Some 9,517 persons have recovered to date, with a mere 44 new recoveries recorded yesterday.
The MOH also announced two more COVID-19 fatalities yesterday, two males; a 73-year-old from Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) and a 59-year-old from Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne), both succumbed while receiving care at medical facilities. Guyana now has 252 COVID-19 deaths.
This publication would have reported a recent surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths, which led to an average of two deaths and 75 new cases per day. Just eight days into the new month, 19 deaths have already been recorded, as well as, 604 new infections.
Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) continues to lead in the number of infections, with 5,165 confirmed cases. As the pandemic continues to affect Guyanese, and the government endeavours to achieve herd immunity by year-end, persons are being encouraged to capitalise on the opportunity to receive their jab of the available COVID-19 vaccines, once eligible. As the vaccination program continues, more groups of persons are being opened to eligibility, with the most recent being persons 40 years and older.
Additionally, Guyana has seen aggressive enforcement of the gazetted COVID-19 measures by the National COVID-19 Task Force with assistance from the Joint Services, in light of the high infection and death rate. The enforcement exercises are being conducted in a bid to ensure maximum compliance and curb the further spread of the virus.

The COVID-19 dashboard