Daily Archive: Friday, April 10, 2020

Washington Post reporter Darran Simon, who is of Guyanese parentage and lived here as a child, was found dead in his Washington DC apartment yesterday, according to a memo sent by one the newspaper’s top editors.

The number of persons here with the COVID-19 virus rose to 40 today.

Ranks of the Guyana Police Force acting on information received yesterday went to a farm located  at Katuru Village, South Central Rupununi where they conducted a search of a camp owned by a foreign national and found three unlicensed shotguns.

Yesterday, between 03:30h and 15:45h ranks of the Guyana Police Force under the command of a Gazetted Officer  conducted a drug eradication operation in the Berbice River during which four fields of cannabis cultivation were found.

Weeks after criticisms that it was not doing enough testing for the COVID-19 virus, the government is preparing to expand the number of tests done following expert advice.

BRASILIA, (Reuters) – A Yanomami youth has died after testing positive for coronavirus, health officials said today, raising fears that the epidemic will spread among the largest indigenous tribe in northern Brazil.

(Trinidad Guardian) Mere hours after he warned the public against hosting COVID parties, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith led a group of officers into St Ann’s where they shut down such a party at Alicia’s Guest House in Coblentz Gardens.

(Trinidad Guardian) Police Commissioner Gary Griffith yesterday called on people to cancel the COVID parties they have been planning.

After an uproar over the proposed 156 days for a recount of ballots from the March 2nd general elections, the opposition-nominated members of the Guyana Elections Com-mission (GECOM) yesterday presented for discussion a counter proposal which would reduce the number of days for the process to 10.

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs Carl Greenidge who gave up his British citizenship following the Caribbean Court of Justice’s ruling on dual citizenship and who President David Granger created a Foreign Secretary post for is no longer with the ministry after “receiving a letter” over a month ago, sources close to him say.

The Ministry of Public Infrastructure has engaged its sister ministry, Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) to begin a contact tracing exercise pertaining to several of its workers, who would have come into contact with veteran engineer, Colonel John Percy Leon Lewis.

A number of persons who were once in institutional quarantine are now cleared to go home as a meeting was held to discuss the use of various medications to treat persons with COVID-19.

Managing Director of Unicomer Guyana Clyde De Haas yesterday said that there are no current plans to cut the salaries of Courts’ employees during the current scale down of operations as a result of the measures taken in response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Major construction work is currently underway at the former Ocean View International Hotel, which was scouted as one of the locations to be set up to house COVID-19 patients.

The main suspect who was recently nabbed for the murder of Rose Hall grocer, Lomenzo Johnny, was yesterday charged with the offence at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court. 

Dear Editor, On 21st December 2018 the APNU+AFC Coalition government lost a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly.

Approximately six weeks after investigators were able to identify a suspect in the murder of Cuban butcher, Ofredis Duarte Campos, he has been apprehended by police.

Dear Editor, I wish to take this opportunity to appeal to the wider public as we approach this Easter Weekend to please for your own safety and that of the people of our hinterland communities to please stay home.

President of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) has said that a transparently satisfactory outcome to the March 2 general elections is important to the local business community in the context of any declared outcome that might be perceived by “powerful trading partners” to be based on what he termed “flawed results.”

Dear Editor, Over the last few weeks, Exxon has been busy reassuring its shareholders they will receive their dividend cheques and donating meals and cash to those in need in New Mexico and Texas.

The Private Sector Com-mission (PSC) is doubling down on its position that a vote recount confined to District 4 is sufficient and to include the other nine Districts is unnecessary and unreasonably prolongs the declaration of the elections results from the March 2nd polls.

In a move that appears to have come as no major surprise to the rest of the global oil and gas industry, the US super major ExxonMobil this week announced that it was slashing US$10 billion from its capital 2020 expenditure, in effect reducing spending by 15 per cent.

Dear Editor, In August 2011 a Request for Proposal was issued by Mr Rickford Lowe (Coordinator, Works Service Group, Ministry of Public Works and Communications) for a Feasibility Study and Design of the East Coast Road from Better Hope to Bellfield.

Courts Guyana yesterday donated a bus to support the efforts of the Ministry of Public Health’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Team.

Amidst concerns being expressed elsewhere in the Caribbean about likely food availability challenges arising out of the current coronavirus pandemic and its impact on both the agricultural sector in some countries as well as challenges associated with the importation of foods, Chief Executive Officer of Nand Persaud & Company, Mohindra Persaud, has delivered an upbeat report on the performance of the company insofar as both rice production and the servicing of both its local and overseas markets is concerned.

Dear Editor, I was profoundly saddened when I heard that Komal Chand has passed away.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Americans must resist the impulse to ease social-separation measures at the first glimpse of progress now being seen in the coronavirus battle, state government and public health leaders warned yesterday, as the U.S.

Two suspects were recently arrested in connection with the fatal stabbing of a Timehri father of one.

(Trinidad Express) Some Indo-Trinidad and Tobago nationals stranded in Barbados are of the view they are being rejected from entering this country because of their race.

Dear Editor, The proposal by GECOM to take 156 days to count 472,000 votes has been commented upon by others.

DUBAI/MOSCOW/LONDON,  (Reuters) – OPEC and its allies led by Russia agreed yesterday to cut their oil output by more than a fifth and said they expected the United States and other producers to join in their effort to prop up prices hammered by the coronavirus crisis.

By Dr. Lystra Fletcher-Paul As the Covid-19 pandemic rapidly unfolds around the world and particularly the Caribbean, people are now awakening to the new reality of the far-reaching impacts that this pandemic will have on their lives in the future.

(Jamaica Gleaner) A US$4.28 million court award to Fly Jamaica Limited for breach of contract against ADS Global Limited, the company that operated the airline’s call centre from 2012 to 2014, has been put on hold pending an appeal.

(Trinidad Guardian) There is now a ban by some supermarkets on customers who are not wearing face masks to protect against COVID-19.

Dear Editor, I was deeply shocked to learn of the death of John Lewis.

MEXICO CITY,  (Reuters) – An armed group stormed a gold mine in northern Mexico and stole bars of gold and silver alloy before fleeing in a light aircraft, mine operator Minas de Oro Nacional said.

A detailed proposal consisting of the design and an engineer’s estimate for emergency works on the eroding Content, Mahaicony sea defence has been submitted to the Ministry of Finance, as the subject ministry seeks financing to execute the project.

Already having dealt a devastating blow to the tourism and service sectors across the region, adversely impacting the mainly small and open economies, the impact of the coronavirus has left the countries of the Caribbean “staggering”, according to United Nations Resident Coordinator for Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Didier Trebucq.

(Trinidad Express) Health Minister Terrence Deyalsing called once more for citizens to comply with the stay at home advisory and other COVID-19 measures as the country battle to stave off the spread of the deadly coronavirus.

LONDON (Reuters) – OPEC and other major oil producers were due to discuss on Thursday big output cuts in the face of a huge fall in demand due to the coronavirus crisis.

Dear Editor, That announcement from GTT about a pay cut leaves a bad taste in the mouth and all over. 

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson left intensive care last evening as he continues to recover from COVID-19, but he remains under close observation in hospital, his office said yesterday.

The Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) has  condemned the actions of public transportation operators, who since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Guyana, have been discriminating against healthcare workers.

MANAUS,  (Reuters) – Brazil’s Amazonas state warned yesterday that its health system has been overwhelmed by the coronavirus epidemic, with all intensive care beds and ventilators already taken as a result of the outbreak.

Dear Editor, The coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to cause significant changes in many areas of our lives and many of these changes are explained on both mass media and social media.

OTTAWA,  (Reuters) – Canada’s coronavirus death toll is set to soar from more than 500 currently to as high as 22,000 by the end of the pandemic, health officials said yesterday, while the economy lost a record 1 million jobs last month.

These pictures capture aspects of the transformation which Guyanese across the country have been going through in response to the presence of the virus here in Guyana and the sense dread that attends its presence here.

The Port Mourant land surveyor,  Mahendra Mangru, who was picked up in an unconscious state in front of his property on Tuesday, died as a result of a fractured spine due to a blunt trauma, a post-mortem examination revealed yesterday. 

(Jamaica Gleaner) The vice-principal of the Excelsior High School in Kingston, Colleen Walker, has been shot dead.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados,  CMC – Cricket West Indies chief executive, Johnny Grave, has described a “best-case scenario” for the Test tour of England which would see the regional side playing in July instead of June, having a single warm-up match before the start of the series and playing back-to-back Tests.

It would, one expects, not have been lost on the leaders of this nation and on the nation as a whole that the absence of an officially declared outcome to the March 2 general elections up to this time and the onset of the coronavirus are the two priority concerns and that the well-being of the country in all of its various respects is dependent on the satisfactory handling and the outcomes of both issues.

Who could have believed, even last year at this time when the government had already embarked on its elections’ delay strategy, that we would be facing an Easter such as this?

ST JOHN’S, Antigua,  CMC – Cricket West Indies president, Ricky Skerritt, has assured players there are no immediate plans to slash their retainer contracts, as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues to wreck playing schedules across the globe.

Dear Editor, While any schoolchild could calculate that 450,000 votes could easily be counted and verified by 20-30 persons in a week, it boggles the mind that the Secretariat of the Elections Commission would try to defend its ludicrous 156-day timeframe with a press release as reported in the media; one which goes on to criticise members of its own governing body.

(Reuters) – Australian pace bowler Pat Cummins is “super hopeful” that the Indian Premier League (IPL) will go ahead this year despite the COVID-19 pandemic, even if it means matches are initially played in empty stadiums.

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Australia’s proposed test tour of Bangladesh in June has been officially postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic and both boards will now work together to find new dates to reschedule the series in the future.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Embattled Trinidad and Tobago football chief, William Wallace, has raised the stakes in his battle against removal by FIFA, contending football’s world governing body had no power to oust his executive.

BERN,  (Reuters) – Professional footballers often live alone in a strange country, far from their families and work in a high-adrenaline profession where they can be heroes one day and forgotten the next.

Gold Prices for the three day period ending Thursday April 09, 2020 Kitco is a Canadian company that buys and sells precious metals such as gold, copper and silver.

(Reuters) – North America’s sports leagues may be itching to return to action but 72% of those who responded to a Seton Hall poll said they would not feel safe to attend games until a vaccine for the novel coronavirus is developed.

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Some of England’s leading players will go head-to-head from their living rooms over Easter as part of a new FIFA 20 tournament launched by the FA on Thursday.

We live in a time of heightened fear and uncertainty. For those of us who plan ahead as a past time, we might feel that our objectives and timelines are becoming more and more irrelevant.

(Field Level  Media) Trae Young is planning on living at half court.

SANTIAGO,  (Reuters) – In the usually bustling streets of the downtown Santiago this week, Chilean great-grandmother Luz Maria Rios was ignoring a coronavirus quarantine and risking her health to sell Easter eggs.

NEW YORK,  (Reuters) – Two former 21st Century Fox executives and a South American sports marketing company pleaded not guilty yesterday to criminal charges in New York in the long-running corruption probe surrounding FIFA, the world governing body for soccer.

SYDNEY,  (Reuters) – Australia batsman Marnus Labuschagne has had to devise an innovative way to get some practice and stay busy with cricket currently shut down due to the coronavirus pandemic and is facing throwdowns with a taped-up tennis ball.

Works on the Sheriff Street/Mandela Avenue project are still ongoing and are being executed under the precautionary protocols mandated to arrest the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) according to Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson.

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – West Indies legend Michael Holding has identified the batting trio of Nicholas Pooran, Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope as proof of the exceptional talent in the Caribbean, and believes they can serve as the catalyst for the regional side’s revival in coming years.

ST JOHN’S, Antigua,  CMC – Novice West Indies leg-spinning all-rounder, Hayden Walsh, says he has embraced head coach Phil Simmons as a “father figure”, following his international debut for the regional side last year.

PARIS, (Reuters) – Formula one is facing a new reality and must make deeper cost cuts to ensure the sport emerges intact from the coronavirus crisis, FIA president Jean Todt said.

“Stay Home! Stay Home!” What Home? Look friends, very recently I’ve been telling myself – not always convincingly- that the People’s National Congress (PNC) and GECOM’s Secretariat under former Officer Lowenfield, have won!

(Reuters) – England’s county cricketers will forgo 1 million pounds ($1.24 million) in prize money and take pay cuts in April and May to help protect the domestic game during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) has said.

MANCHESTER, England,  (Reuters) – Among the multitude of viral videos flying around social media during Britain’s coronavirus lockdown, is one which ridicules Premier League footballers in a brutal, unsubtle fashion.