EDITOR’S NOTE: In today’s newsletter, #HealthCaribbean features Guyana. There has been no other editions this year that have featured this location. Guyana is a member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and is located on the South American continent. It also shares a border with Brazil, which has the second-highest death toll from COVID-19 in the world.

Our headline, taken from Demerara Waves, reads: “New COVID-19 Variants Possibly Spiking Cases In Guyana – PAHO Director Hints”. Director of the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) — Dr. Carissa Etienne — said, “After the introduction of new variants in the Guianas, cases have accelerated in French Guiana and Guyana”.

To date the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has not detected any such variants. However, over 100,000 persons have received their first vaccination. And, public pools have been ordered closed even with the oncoming Olympics and CARIFTA Swimming Championships following shortly thereafter.

Otherwise, five health facilities were selected by the Ministry of Health, under the previous government, to be upgraded in the ‘Smart Health Care Facilities in the Caribbean’ Project, funded by U.K.’s former Department for International Development, through PAHO. Diamond Hospital is the first of these facilities to be completed.

And finally, the Minister of Health — Dr. Frank Anthony — has advised that, under the current administration, his Ministry is working towards stabilising the country’s drug and medical supplies problems by July coming: having already discarded billions of dollars worth of expired stock.

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