GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana, worried at a rapid increase in coronavirus (COVID-19) cases in the past few days, are urging citizens to get the second dose of the available vaccines so as to complete the process and protect themselves and families against the Delta variant.
Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony receives his COVID-19 vaccine (DPI Photo)“As of last week, our numbers were relatively low, meaning that it had dropped to about 800 or so, and then we started seeing an increase in those numbers of new cases, and that is very instructive because it’s telling us that we probably have a more infectious variant that is now in Guyana,” said Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony.
“And we all know that in many countries around the world that the Delta variant is becoming the dominant variant. So, Delta is now in more than 140 something countries,” he told the Tuesday COVID-19 news conference.
“And as that variant becomes the dominant strain that is circulating in the country, we will see that it’s going to cause more infections, unfortunately, it is going to cause more hospitalization and it is going to cause more deaths.”
Anthony said that unvaccinated people are among those being severely affected by the Delta variant.
“So, the thing here, if we are going to protect ourselves against Delta, then we really need to make sure that we are vaccinated, and if we are not vaccinated, then we’ll be at a higher risk to get the disease.
“So, I really want to urge people, you will have an opportunity here to get vaccinated, we have more than 110 sites, fixed sites that is, that are operating and you can come to any one of these sites, you can start the process by getting your first dose of the vaccine.
“We have now, we have the AstraZeneca, Sinopharm , some J&J and this is available to any adult in this country. There is no rational reason why you should be without the vaccine, if you don’t take that vaccine, it is going to put you at severe risk,” Anthony said.
On Monday, Guyana received 5,000 second doses of the Russian made Sputnik V vaccine, as well as its first tranche of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, strengthening its arsenal against the virus that has killed 597 people and infected 24, 372 since March last year.
Anthony told reporters that as of Tuesday morning, there were 146 new cases of virus in the country, out of 1,917 tests conducted the same day.
He said there are now 1,464 active cases across Guyana, 90 of whom are hospitalized. Of that figure, 63 persons are at the Infectious Diseases Hospital and 22 patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
