GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana has registered 485 cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19) in the last 24 hours and health authorities are worried that the record number of infections could continue as the country deals with the Omicron variant of the pandemic.
A healthcare worker administers a COVID-19 test. (Guyana DPI photo)“We can expect that this trend will continue because with the Omicron variant, it is highly contagious and the numbers double every four days or so,” said Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony during his daily COVID-19 update.
Figures released here show that the 485 cases are the highest number of infections recorded in a 24 period, pushing the total number of active cases to 1,824. The country has since March 2020, recorded 1, 056 deaths and 40, 154 infections.
“Our active cases is now 1,824 and so that’s a big jump and it’s probably the highest total we have had in a day and maybe these numbers will even go further”, Dr. Anthony said.
The majority of the infected people are in various communities in Region Four , namely Demerara- Mahaica; Diamond, Grove, Non- Pariel, Kitty, Sophia and Lodge.
The authorities are also worried about ‘hotspots’ with large numbers of cases.
Additionally, 64 people are hospitalized after experiencing the more severe and life-threatening forms of COVID-19; eight of them are receiving critical care in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
Of the active cases in the country, 1,138 are in Region Four, 272 in Region Six, 148 in Region Three, 78 in Region Nine, 41 in Region Two, and 74 in Region Ten.
“So you can see that the cases are going up around the country and those Regions that have low cases are awaiting the results because we have collected samples but they have not been processed as yet. So we can expect that this trend will continue because with the Omicron variant, it is highly contagious and the numbers double every four days or so,” the Health Minister added.
He said a high number of cases were expected since people have not been adhering to the COVID-19 guidelines.
