Guyana’s Health Ministry has sent 20 samples taken from COVID-19 patients to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test for the Omicron variant, Minister Dr Frank Anthony has disclosed.
While he has said repeatedly that signs indicate the presence of the Omicron variant in Guyana, there has been no official confirmation.
His supposition is premised on the increased transmissibility that was witnessed during the latter part of December 2021 and in early 2022, that saw a quadrupling of active cases in the country.
“One of the things that we do is to take samples from patients, and we send them to confirm which variants are circulating in Guyana and over the weekend we would have sent 20 samples to CARPHA for confirmation.
Clinically we’re convinced that we’ve had in the late December, January, February period we would have seen a conversion from Delta to Omicron because of the clinical picture that we’ve been seeing,” the minister noted.
Dr. Anthony said the samples will confirm whether the variant is circulating in the country. He said the results are expected within the next two to three weeks.
Further, 66 persons are currently hospitalised, 50 of whom are being treated at the Ocean View Hospital with nine persons in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
