Holiday season responsible for significant rise in Covid-19 cases

-Health Minister urging adherence to protocols

With the holiday season nearing its culmination point, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P., on Old Year’s Day urged Guyanese to increase their levels of adherence to the COVID-19 protocols, as a significant climb in cases has been recorded over the last few days.

Dr Anthony, in giving the number of active cases the country has seen over the last 48 hours, noted that this has indicated a noticeable jump in positive cases, implying that persons have been flunking COVID-19 protocols and exposing themselves to infection.

“Over the last day or two, we have seen an increase in cases. Yesterday, we have seen 161 new cases. Today we have 182 new cases,” Dr Anthony highlighted.

In further breaking down the statistics, the minister noted that there are several hotspots, as COVID-19 cases have been spread out across the country during this increased period.

These hotspots have been identified as:

• South Ruimveldt
• Providence
• Eccles
• Diamond
• Wismar
• New Amsterdam
• Lethem

The minister continued his plea for citizens to remain cognisant of the fact that the pandemic is still in full swing, and people must guard themselves at all times, as ignorance of this will only allow the surge in cases to continue.

“We have to be careful, because the doubling time is much shorter with these cases and, unfortunately, if this trend continues, we will have to brace ourselves for more cases,” he said.

If this does become the case, however, Minister Anthony said that the healthcare system has already begun putting systems in place to expand its hospital accommodation.

There are currently 34 persons in hospital, with six of these persons in the Intensive Care Unit at the Ocean View Hospital.