Low vaccination, testing for COVID-19 in Region 10

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, MP, is concerned with the low vaccination numbers and low rate of testing in Region 10, as the Government is working tirelessly to secure COVID-19 vaccines for every adult in the country.

During Friday’s Covid update, the Minister expressed his dissatisfaction with the approach of persons in the region, to protect themselves from the deadly disease.

“Region 10 has the lowest numbers for first dose vaccines, for people in Region 10, we have just completed about 5,693 vaccines, first dose, which approximates to about 20.7 per cent of the adult population of Region 10. And for a second dose its much lower, we just have about 2,588 persons who would have been fully vaccinated in Linden. This is just about 9.4 per cent of those who were vaccinated, got their first dose just about 9.4 per cent came back and got their second dose. So, as you can see this is really low.”

Equally important to beating the pandemic in the region is testing. Minister Anthony said the testing rate is extremely low despite 1,555 persons testing positive, and some 47 deaths recorded in the region.

He noted that 208 persons from the region have been hospitalised with the severe form of the disease.

Nationally, 251, 230 COVID-19 tests have been conducted from March 2020 up to Thursday. However, in Region 10 for that same period, there have only been 8,265 tests.

“There’s another anomaly in Region 10 and that is, perhaps there are lots of people there who might have signs and symptoms of Covid. These are flu-like symptoms but they don’t come for a test. We know with Covid there might be people who are asymptomatic, so if you don’t know what tests you would know whether you’re positive or not. Again, the testing numbers in Region 10 has been relatively low.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony noted that Region Eight is also lagging with vaccination. He said only 38 per cent of the region’s population has taken the first dose of the vaccine, while 23 per cent took both doses.

Overall, 298, 248 persons have taken the first dose of a Covid vaccine, which represents 58.1 per cent of the adult population in Guyana.  Some 152, 997 persons have taken both jabs of the vaccine, resulting in 29.8 per cent of the population being fully inoculated against COVID-19.

The Minister is calling on the leaders of the country, especially those in the opposition, to help protect the lives of Guyanese by encouraging their supporters to be vaccinated.