Following the confirmation of multiple cases of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the Moruca Sub-District of Region One, the Santa Rosa village council has announced that a complete lockdown will be imposed on the community for two weeks.
A total of nine coronavirus cases have been recorded in the Barima-Waini region thus far, inclusive of one death. Eight of the cases are from the Moruca Sub-District and one from the town of Mabaruma.
The lockdown is scheduled to commence on June 2nd and is expected to end on June 16th. According to residents, all shops will have to be closed and boat and taxi services will be suspended during the lockdown.
The first case of the coronavirus in Moruca was confirmed on May 21st. The patient is a 68-year-old man, who has underlying health conditions.
In an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, a relative of the patient, who did not want to be named, revealed that the patient travelled from Georgetown to Moruca in April. She stated that he did not show any signs or symptoms of the disease when he arrived. As a result, she assumed he was well but due to mandatory self-quarantining imposed by the village council, he rarely ventured out into the community.
However, after almost two weeks had passed following his arrival in the community, he was informed by a Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) official that he had been in contact with a coronavirus positive patient during his time on the coast. He was subsequently placed in quarantine for three weeks.
During that time he ensured that he had no contact with others and only interacted with the relative considering that they are living in the same house.
After his 21 days of quarantine were over, the relative said that neither the Ministry’s officials nor the regional health officials contacted him and he believed he was cleared so he went on to interact with other family members. She said she believes that the lack of communication between the patient and health officials was because the doctor had revealed the identity of the person whom he had contact with to residents of the area. The ministry was informed of this and said that it would address the matter. As a result, the doctor refused to contact the patient.
The relative noted that when the patient was placed in quarantine, the family was discriminated against by residents of the community and was told they “gon die out like white fowls.”
Meanwhile, after they received the results of the coronavirus tests, she said, they were both surprised because the patient seemed very healthy. “I was very shocked when he told me his results, he didn’t even had a headache while he was here,” she said.
Following the disclosure of his results, she added, their relatives were placed in quarantine and she was tested a few days later. When her results returned, she was relieved that it was negative as she was the only one that the patient had really interacted with.
Despite her negative result, she said that she and the rest of her relatives will remain in quarantine until the two weeks have ended.
However, this will be very difficult for the family as the little food supplies they had in stock are almost done. The elderly woman noted that they can’t ask anyone to buy food because people are scared of catching the virus from them. She said over the past few weeks, people have been discriminating against them, especially on social media. As a result, they have no way of getting the necessary supplies and the ministry hasn’t put any system in place that can assist persons in quarantine.
She also revealed that although the patient isn’t displaying coronavirus symptoms, he is suffering from hypertension and the discrimination coupled with false media reports have sent his blood pressure up and it hasn’t dropped to date.
“Everything has taken a toll on him mentally, so when I last called him he told me that his blood pressure is still very high,” she stated.
Further, she said there are rumours that he had been in contact with the region’s first coronavirus casualty, Vincent Torres, and persons are blaming him for his death.
The relative said that the patient never had any sort of contact with Torres since his arrival in the community. In fact, she said, they do not know him personally and for the past few weeks, they only had contact with relatives.
She added that contrary to media reports the six new cases of the coronavirus that were identified in the community on Wednesday were not related to the patient.
Stabroek News understands that the six new coronavirus cases in Moruca are persons who had contact with Torres. Two of the six persons are Torres’ relatives and four are employees of the Kumaka District Hospital. The latter reportedly treated Torres without any protective gear when he was admitted to the hospital last week even though he was displaying coronavirus symptoms.
Torres died on May 22nd at the Hospital. Subsequent to his death, he was tested for the coronavirus. His test results revealed that he was indeed infected with the disease.
