Guatemala reaches 9,798 deaths due to Covid-19 after adding 42 new deaths

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Guatemala reported on Wednesday a total of 42 new deaths due to covid-19 and 2,904 infections of the disease in 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths virus to 9,798 and 325,024 positive cases.

The Ministry of Health indicated in the update of data on the pandemic that 2,904 new infections were detected after carrying out 9,977 tests this Tuesday, both in the public and private sectors.

Since Wednesday under a state of prevention, the Central American country decreed on Tuesday by the Government presided by Alejandro Giammattei to avoid the expansion of the fourth wave of the disease.

With the implementation of the state of prevention, in force for the next 15 days, the sale of alcoholic beverages is prohibited from 6 pm to 6 am. Previously, the prohibited hours were from 9 pm to 6 am.

The Government regulation also limits the “celebration of open-air meetings in those cases in which they do not comply with the physical distancing” and with the use of masks.

According to the health ministry, the accumulated incidence of the coronavirus in Guatemala is 1,928 infections per 100,000 people, and the lethality rate is 3%.

The Ministry of Health also specified that 30,613 cases remain active, and although the figure is an “estimate”, it is one of the highest since the beginning of the pandemic.

On Tuesday, the Central American nation reached exactly 16 months since the first case of the coronavirus was detected in its territory on March 13, 2020.

According to the physician and former Secretary of Planning, the country presided over by Giammattei is “in a really complicated moment, in a moment of uncontrolled pandemic, with several variants circulating in the country that accelerate the contagion” of the Presidency (2008-2012) Karin Slowing.

To this is added, in Slowing’s opinion, the lack of “protective measures” and “epidemiological surveillance” on the part of the authorities and a “testing that is not systematic but on-demand”, about the performance of tests to detect the virus.

Sixty-eight percent of the 9,798 covid-19 fatalities in Guatemala are male, and 32% are female.

However, the number of deaths in the country could be higher, according to a report released last March by the non-governmental organization Laboratorio de Datos, which stated that from March 2020 to March 2021, more than 15,000 people died from covid-19, according to data from the National Registry of Persons (state).