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THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2021 | GUYANATIMESGY.COM Region 4 woman is latest COVID-19 fatality, death toll now stands at 189

— 51 new cases recorded in 24 hours

The Health Ministry on Wednesday confirmed that another person who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has died thus taking the death toll to 189.

The latest fatality is a 69-year-old female from Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica) who died on Tuesday while receiving care at a medical facility.

This is the third COVID-19 death recorded thus far this week. On Sunday, two elderly males, aged 71 and 70, from Regions Four and Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) respectively, died while being treated for the virus at medical facilities.

Meanwhile, new statistics provided by the Health Ministry showed that 51 new COVID-19 cases were recorded in a 24-hour period from 559 tests. The total number of confirmed cases in the country is now 8313 – 4310 males and 4003 females.

Of that total, only 605 are currently active cases. These comprise eight patients in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 597 persons in isolation – 42 persons in institutional isolation and the other 555 in home isolation.

There are 17 persons in institutional quarantine.

To date, some 7519 persons have recovered from the life-threatening virus locally, with 33 more recoveries recorded on Wednesday. Of the new cases recorded on Wednesday, seven were detected in Essequibo Islands-West Demerara, a whopping 36 cases in Demerara-Mahaica, one in Region Five (MahaicaBerbice); four in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) and three cases in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni).

The figures in the other four regions – Region One (Barima-Waini), Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam), Region Eight (PotaroSiparuni), Region Nine (Upper Essequibo-Takutu) and Region 10 (Upper Demerara- Berbice) – remained the same.

As the number of cases continues to increase in Guyana, Government last week began a COVID-19 vaccination drive to protect against the deadly virus.

Guyana received its first batch of COVID-19 vaccines last week when Barbados donated 3000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. This saw healthcare workers at the Georgetown Public and the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Ocean View, Liliendaal, Greater Georgetown, being given the first doses.

Health-care and other frontline workers are the first category to be vaccinated followed by at-risk persons and the elderly population before extending to the wider citizenry.

In the meantime, as Guyana awaits the arrival of vaccines under the COVAX facility, one of its strongest diplomatic allies, India, has since donated thousands of the AstraZeneca jab to Guyana via a 500,000 doses pledge to the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

In a statement, the Indian High Commissioner said on Wednesday that as part of Caricom’s donation, “Guyana, along with Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis, will also receive tens of thousands of doses of Covishield vaccine to meet the immediate requirements of vaccinating health-care workers, frontline workers and those with co-morbidities within the end of February 2021.”

Covishield is the local name for the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine that was developed in the United Kingdom and is being manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

In addition to these donated doses, India will also assist the Caricom countries in securing supplies of vaccines at affordable rates from Indian manufacturing companies.

Recognising India’s remarkable contribution to the fight against COVID-19 by supplying vaccines, a resolution which was sponsored by Caricom was adopted by the Permanent Council of the Organisation of American States OAS) by acclamation on Wednesday, expressing gratitude to the Indian Government for generously supplying beneficial quantities of the Serum Institute-made OxfordAstraZeneca vaccines to several Caribbean countries.

Also, on Wednesday, India’s External Affairs Minister, Dr S Jaishankar announced, during a virtual address to the United Nations Security Council, a gift of 200,000 doses of vaccines for UN peacekeepers worldwide.

Vaccines made in India totalling around eight million have now been supplied to over 25 nations and 49 countries across the world will be added soon to the list of beneficiaries under its #VaccineMaitri (Vaccine Friendship) initiative, which has been dubbed as “vaccine diplomacy” by the media.

India’s vaccine manufacturers can manufacture up to 650-800 million vaccines by August 2021 with the Serum Institute of India alone agreeing to produce 1.1 billion doses for delivery in total. This will also be used to supply the COVAX facility along with fulfilling commitments to supply 10 million doses to Africa, one million doses to UN workers and countries across the world.

On Monday, the World Health Organisation approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for use in its COVAX vaccination programme, which aims to provide poorer countries around the world with “equitable access” to COVID-19 vaccines.

Meanwhile, the last-phase trials of other Made in India COVID-19 vaccines are progressing well with the country’s first indigenous vaccine against the novel coronavirus, COVAXIN – developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology, Pune, is in the second phase of clinical trials.

Already, the Government of India had earlier assisted Guyana and Antigua and Barbuda with ventilators; Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs); medicines and other essential medical supplies worth US$1 million per country to help with these countries’ fight against the pandemic. A similar donation worth US$300,000 was made to St Kitts and Nevis.

Officers on duty during Mazaruni jailbreak being questioned – Prison Director

— as search continues for escaped prisoners

The prison officers who were on duty on Tuesday night when four high-profile inmates escaped from the Mazaruni Prison in Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) are being questioned by the Guyana Police Force (GPF).

“Officers who would have worked the night period, they are all assisting with the investigation at the moment,” Director of Prisons (ag), Nicklon Elliot, told <<Guyana Times>> on Wednesday when contacted for an update on the jailbreak.

Asked whether there is any suspicion of collusion between the officers who had been on duty and the escaped prisoners, the Prison Director posited that this would be determined by the probe.

“Currently, the matter is being investigated by the Police and the prisons…we’ll have to wait until the investigation determines if there was collusion, and what level of collusion there (was, if any at all),” Elliot contended.

Meanwhile, the Prison Director noted that the search for the four escapees is still continuing, and that the Joint Services and patrol teams are following several leads.

Elliot confirmed that the authorities had received information that the prisoners might have stolen a boat from a nearby village to aid in their escape.

“A team has since been dispatched to the area to confirm with [persons in the village] if that’s true or not,” he further related.

Those who escaped are 25-year-old Imran Ramsaywack of Adelphi Village, East Canje Berbice; 44-year-old Kenrick Lyte, whose last known address was Grant Good Intent, Lower Pomeroon River; 22-yearold Samuel Gouveia of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and 22-yearold Rayon Jones of Timehri, East Bank Demerara (EBD).

Ramsaywack and Lyte were on Death Row, while Gouveia and Jones were convicted of manslaughter. The four prisoners made their escape from the maximum-security prison at about 07:00h on Tuesday.

Police have since issued wanted bulletins for the men, who will now each face an ‘escaping from lawful custody’ charge.

The Guyana Prison Service has explained that, at about 07:15hrs on Tuesday, during the unlocking of the Brick Prison (Solitary Division) supervised by the duty officer and four other ranks, it was observed that the padlock to the entrance gate was tampered with, and further checks revealed that two bars within the cell were cut.

Nevertheless, the Guyana Police Force, in its efforts to recapture the inmates, is appealing to members of the public, including relatives and friends of the wanted men, to give the Police any relevant information in regard to the whereabouts of these escapees, so that they can be captured and returned to the prison.

Also, an appeal is being made to the escapees to surrender to the Police or to relevant authority, to avoid any serious confrontation that is likely to result in the use of force.

The Police Force assures that all information provided would be treated with a high degree of confidence, and also the rights of those escapees would be respected and upheld.

Anyone with information that may lead to the arrest of Imran Ramsaywack, Kenrick Lyte, Samuel Gouveia and/or Ryan Jones is asked to contact the Police on telephone numbers 455-2238, 455-2222, 2264585, 225-2700, 911, or at the nearest Police station.

Health Minister cautions against forging COVID-19 test results to travel

Local authorities have heightened their monitoring of persons passing through Guyana’s airports after reports of forged COVID-19 test results have surfaced.

During his latest COVID-19 update on Wednesday, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony disclosed that there have been cases of persons forging their COVID-19 test results in order to get into Guyana.

“We had reports of people forging their PCR to come to Guyana, and we have launched an investigation into that and we have alerted airport authorities for those respective countries telling them that this is something we have heard of and we would like them to be extra vigilant. We’ve also alerted the airlines that are bringing in passengers from these destinations. So, we have done some of that work to heighten vigilance in terms of persons coming in,” the Minister revealed.

As it is, persons entering Guyana are required to have a negative PCR test taken within seven days prior to their arrival. Persons with tests done within one to three days upon their arrival will not be subjected to any further health checks, however, those with tests that were completed within four to seven days prior to their arrival will be subjected to a PCR test at the airports here before being allowed to exit the building.

Private facilities have been set up at the airport to conduct these tests for persons both arriving and departing the country.

However, while Dr Anthony noted that there have been cases of people falsifying their COVID-19 tests to enter Guyana, there have not been any such cases for persons leaving the country.

But back in December, Eureka Medical Laboratories – the only private lab certified to conduct PCR testing and one of seven private labs permitted to do antigen testing – had warned that persons have been falsifying negative COVID-19 results in order to travel during the Christmas holidays.

“The laboratory has been working closely with airport authorities to ascertain the identities of those who are culpable. Persons are, therefore, urged to desist from forging COVID-19 results as airport officials will be scrutinising all medical documents. Eureka wishes to advise the public that the fabrication of results can be detrimental to the health of others, especially in the case of a positive result being translated to negative, which can aid in the unfortunate transmission of the coronavirus,” the private lab had noted in a statement.

Nevertheless, the Health Minister on Wednesday cautioned that those found culpable of committing this act will be prosecuted by the Police.

He further urged persons to check which labs have been certified in Guyana to conduct these COVID-19 tests.

“In our country, the only two labs that have been certified to do PCR would be the National Public Health Reference Lab and the Eureka Medical Laboratories. However, we have licensed several other labs to be able to do the antigen tests – which is a simpler test – and right now we have seven such facilities… Once an approval is granted to a lab, we would also then inform the airport authority so that when someone shows up with a test result, it can be validated by the airport authority and by the airline… that this is a genuine laboratory test,” Minister Anthony noted.

Among the other labs certified to conduct antigen testing in Guyana for international travel apart from Eureka Medical Laboratories are: Dr Balwant Singh’s Hospital Laboratory; Dr Leslie Persaud Clinic: Diagnostic Centre; Woodlands Hospital Limited Laboratory; Sheriff Medical Centre Laboratory; Quest Medical Centre and Anamayah Memorial Hospital.

Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony