As Guyana registered its 11th death from COVID-19 yesterday, six more residents of the Palms Geriatric Home have tested positive and patients have begun occupying the still under-construction sanatorium at the Ocean View Hotel after a shocking incident on Saturday at the Diamond isolation facility where doctors attempted to kick down a door.
The latest COVID-19 fatality is 59-year-old former teacher of Moruca in Region One, Vincent Torres. According to the Department of Public Information (DPI), he tested positive after he went to the Kumaka District Hospital last Wednesday presenting symptoms of the virus and died on Friday as a result of COVID-19 complications.
Torres is now the second case to be recorded from Region One and the first death for the region. Reports indicate that the man who was also employed by the Guyana Elections Commission as an Assistant Returning Officer for the Region had travelled to Georgetown a few weeks ago.
When Stabroek News contacted family members of Torres, they opted not to comment as they were still devastated at his sudden death.
The last COVID-19 death prior to that of Torres was recorded on May 6th and was that of an elderly man from the Palms Geriatric Home in Georgetown.
How he came to be infected has not been explained but infections at the home have since risen dramatically.
In a telephone interview yesterday, Director of Social Services Whentworth Tanner told Stabroek News that six more residents of the home have tested positive.
As a result, a total of 11 residents and a Patient Care Assistant have now been confirmed as COVID-19 positive.
Tanner said the additional six persons who tested positive for the virus are currently being housed in a separate ward but they will join the others in the infirmary shortly.
He also said COVID-19 patients in the infirmary are currently stable. “We are heartened by the fact that they are stable so far,” he added.
Tanner explained that with the aid of doctors, patients infected with the deadly virus are being monitored, “while we are trying our best to ensure they recover fully from the virus.”
Previously, Tanner had stated that 18 staff members had been placed in quarantine. He said yesterday that those persons were retested but he was not in receipt of their results.
According to Tanner, the home is in continuous contact with the Health Emergency Operations Centre (HEOC).
Relocated
Meanwhile, around one dozen COVID-19 patients were relocated from the Diamond Isolation Facility to the Ocean View facility which is being built to handle infectious diseases. The move came after a ruckus on Saturday night at the facility when a patient who had been there for over two weeks refused to be housed with a new arrival.
Two doctors then attempted to kick down his door and this act was videoed and circulated to Stabroek News and other media. Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Health stayed silent on this incident.
“People, particularly those who have been here for several weeks, are afraid of cross-contamination. The doctors warn us of this. The risk is that persons with a high viral load can cause virus levels in a person who has a low viral load to rise once there is contamination and recovery will take longer. There are many people here who test negative one day and positive a few days later,” one patient explained on Sunday.
The video shows two doctors attempting to kick down the door. Subsequently, several patients intervened and went to the barricaded door. At that point, one doctor noticed that another patient was filming and grabbed the phone. Stabroek News was told that the phone was damaged in the process and there was a brief scuffle and the patient was ordered to delete the video.
After the ruckus, the new patient was eventually placed with others who had arrived the previous day.
However, the matter did not end there.
On Sunday, patients were not served breakfast until after 11am and they believe that it was because of the previous night’s incident. Most refused to collect the breakfast and those who took the meal said it was spoiled. One patient explained that breakfast usually arrives around 6am at the quarters of the medical team, who then serve the meal. The patients are prohibited from going to that section.
The relative of one patient, who spoke to this newspaper via telephone said, “They served sour porridge and spoil provisions. The food was cold and when they opened it, it wasn’t good for anything. My family (name provided) was crying of hunger.” The man said that his wife cried as she reported the situation to him as they had little else to eat.
However, the patient said that the medical team should not be solely blamed.
“While kicking down the door was ill-advised, in a way I understand the frustration of the doctors. I don’t blame them really. It’s difficult to have to listen to complaints daily and then report to your supervisors but the supervisors don’t act. And I know they are aware of the issues here but they would rather paint a false picture for the public,” the patient said.
“I emphasise, many of the frontline team are doing a good job. There are a few who don’t but on the whole the medical teams do their jobs professionally. The issue is that their supervisors outside, their administrators who are not part of the frontline team and those at a higher level don’t seem to listen to them. I mean, the patients make reasonable requests on issues which can be solved quite easily and at no great cost but the people higher up don’t seem to care, not for the medical teams and certainly not for the patients. When this is over, there needs to be an investigation into the response,” the patient said.
The patients moved yesterday to Ocean View are those who had been tested negative once. They require a second negative test for release and shouldn’t be in close proximity to those recently infected.
Guyana’s confirmed cases now stand at 137 while there are 64 active cases in institutional isolation facilities.
This was revealed by Public Health Minister, Volda Lawrence during the Ministry’s live daily update yesterday. Lawrence stated that two new cases were recorded out of 32 tests that were done yesterday and as such the number of persons tested to date stands at 1489. Two persons are now in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and another two persons are currently in institutional quarantine. Additionally 62 persons have now recovered from the virus.
Lawrence voiced concern about the possibility of the rise in cases in the hinterland.
