Latest update July 27th, 2024 12:59 AM
Mar 03, 2022 News
– Anthony confirms Omicron variant detected in samples sent to CARPHA
Kaieteur News – Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, on Wednesday confirmed that 19 out of the 20 samples that were sent to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) in Trinidad and Tobago to test for the Omnicron variant came back positive.
The minister who made the announcement during his daily COVID-19 update said that one of the samples was indeterminate because it did not have enough genetic material to be sequenced. “So of the 20 samples that we sent, 19 came back positive for Omicron,” he confirmed. The 20 samples from COVID-19 patients were sent to CARPHA earlier last month following the increase in cases health officials were recording in the country.
Guyana started to record a surge in new cases at the end of December and this took a toll in January and part of February. At the end of January, approximately 20,293 cases were detected while over 2000 were recorded last month. Not only did the cases climb but daily cases increased tremendously in January surpassing 1000 cases a day. The Minister along with other health authorities attributed the increase in cases to the easily transmissible variant called Omicron. During an emergency press briefing on the issue, the Minister said, “Based on the current epidemiology, what we are seeing, we believe strongly that there is omicron here.”
The Omicron variant which has over 30 mutations was noted to be more transmissible than that of the Delta variant. It reached countries like neighbouring Brazil and was detected in the Caribbean Region. Though the variant was suspected to be in Guyana it was not officially confirmed in the country at that time.
Meanwhile, in its daily COVID-19 update, the Ministry of Health yesterday reported that two more fully vaccinated persons, who contracted the virus, have died.
According to a statement issued, the country’s latest COVID-19 fatalities are that of an 86-year-old woman and an 83-year-old man from Region Four. As a result of this, Guyana’s COVID-19 death toll has moved to1,222. Further, via its updated dashboard, the Ministry recorded 25 new infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 62,971. The dashboard data shows that eight patients are currently admitted into the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU), 25 persons are in institutional isolation, 389 in home isolation and 15 are quarantined institutionally. To date, a total of 61,327 persons have recovered from the virus.
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