Reg. 4 has highest COVID death rate as six more die

Six more people who tested positive for COVID-19 have died within the last 24 hours, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony revealed on Thursday.

This means that since March 2020, 887 people have died from the dreaded virus and Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) is the region with the highest rate of COVID-19 deaths.

This is followed by Region Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara). According to a regional breakdown of deaths provided by Dr Anthony, a total of 431 people who died are from Region Four while Region Three recorded 130 deaths.

The region with the lowest death rate in Region Eight (Potaro – Sipuruni); this region has only recorded eight COVID-19 deaths.

“Most of these persons, as you know, would have been unvaccinated; a few of them would have been partially vaccinated,” Dr Anthony said during his daily COVID-19 update.

He explained that those who were fully vaccinated and died would have had several comorbidities.

Additionally, the majority of the people who died were men. According to Dr Anthony, 486 or 54.8 per cent of the deaths are men; women account for 401 or 45.2 per cent of the deaths.

The Health Minister also provided the death rate for the following regions:

Region One (45 deaths), Region Two (37 deaths), Region Five (46 deaths), Region Six (69 deaths), Region Seven (41 deaths), Region Nine (23 deaths) and Region Ten (60 deaths).

Guyana recorded hundreds of deaths this year – more than last year. At the end of December 2020, Guyana would have recorded 164 deaths relating to COVID-19. September 2021 is listed as the deadliest month with 179 deaths recorded alone.

Vaccination

To date, 73.2 per cent of the adult population received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccine while 45.8 per cent received their second dose. In terms of the vaccination campaign in children, 36.6 per cent received their first dose and 23.3 per cent received their second dose.

Dr Anthony continues to urge people to get vaccinated against the deadly disease.

“We have to understand one thing and that is, we are going to see a lot of cases among the unvaccinated,” Dr Anthony said while noting that there will be more hospitalisations and deaths among the unvaccinated.