Frontline health care workers who are treating and assisting COVID-19 patients are tested if necessary, in accordance with the criteria set out by health officials in the country.
A number of doctors, nurses, cleaning staff and kitchen staff are on the “frontlines” taking care of patients who contracted COVID-19 daily and as a result run the risk of contracting the disease themselves.
As it is just over a month since Guyana recorded its first case of the disease, a number of questions have been raised about the safety of healthcare workers. However, health authorities say doctors and nurses who are working within these facilities are kept safe as there is an adequate amount of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) gear that the workers must use whenever they are entering or working in the facilities that house COVID-19 patients.
According to Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Karen Gordon-Boyle, health care workers who are suspected to have contracted the virus through their contact with COVID-19 patients are quarantined and if they develop signs and symptoms of the virus during their quarantine they will be tested for the disease. Dr. Gordon-Boyle added that if they do not develop those signs and symptoms of the virus they are not necessarily tested for the virus, which is in keeping with the criteria for testing set out by the health authorities. “So only if someone is having some kind of sign or symptom then they would be tested or they would be sent on quarantine. So… not because you’re working in an area means we’re going to be testing you all the time knowing that you don’t have any signs or symptoms” she noted.
She emphasised the correct use of PPE and said that with it the risk of contracting the virus is not the same as those who are not properly attired.
Gordon-Boyle said currently the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing machine is not being used at its full capacity. She added that the PCR machine which the Guyana Livestock Development Authority (GLDA) has, as Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence stated, will be used as a backup for the public health system if necessary.
Previously, it was announced that the machine which is currently in use for testing at the National Public Health Reference Laboratory is not being fully used as the minister herself stated that at least 96 tests can be done in a day. Testing for the virus for a single day has not passed 96.
