Even though there are currently over 100 persons currently in self-quarantine in Region Nine, after they were in contact with the region’s first, and thus far only confirmed COVID-19 case, the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) has denied a request by regional authorities to institute a regional lockdown.
This was revealed by the Regional Executive Officer (REO) of Region Nine Carl Parker, who said the Regional Health Emergency Committee (RHEC) recommended a total lockdown “based on the fact that the Rupununi is very vulnerable on two sides—the Brazil threat and then we have persons coming in from Georgetown.”
Parker said the situation is compounded by the fact that the patient visited several communities, from Toruka in Region Eight to Aishalton in the South Rupununi. “It was our belief that if we lock down the region, it would prevent people from moving because our people, they move a lot in the pursuit of their activities….We said if we had lock down the Rupununi, it would have been easier for contact tracing and it would have been easier to stop persons who would have come into contact with other people. Unfortunately, the national task force did not see with us and as such it was not approved. We only make recommendations based on our situation but at the end of the day the final decision lies with the Task Force in Georgetown and they did not see with us.”
Parker revealed that 130 persons have been placed under quarantine in the region since the first case was confirmed more than a week ago. The patient was identified as Hamlett DaSilva, a Brazil-based Guyanese. He reportedly entered the country through an unconventional border crossing and visited a number of Indigenous communities in the South Pakaraimas, North Rupununi and South Rupununi before officially being diagnosed with the disease. He later escaped from the isolation facility in Lethem but was recaptured a few hours later in Brazil, where he is currently being monitored at an isolation facility there.
According to Parker, health authorities have asked 130 persons to self-quarantine across the region. This, he says, includes persons who had been in contact with persons who had direct contact with Da Silva. Families were also asked to self-quarantine.
Seventy-seven persons are from Indigenous communities in the South Pakaraimas, while 44 persons are from communities in the North Rupununi and four from communities in the South Rupununi. Five others who were asked to quarantine, according to Parker, were tested but the results were negative. However, he said, those persons will remain in quarantine for two weeks.
“In Lethem, there are a number of medical practitioners who have been in contact with the patients unknowingly and also we have other residents like taxi-drivers. We have six residents who would have come in contact with him as well. Some of the quarantined persons in Lethem they were tested negative but they still have to fulfill their quarantine period which will end sometime next week,” Parker told Stabroek News.
