The National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), the Ministry of Public Health and various other ministries and government agencies along with non-governmental organisations last evening held an emergency meeting on the “alarming increase” in confirmed COVID-19 cases in parts of regions 1 and 7.
A release from the task force says decisions were taken to effect enhanced containment measures within the affected areas in these regions and these will be gazetted shortly.
“The enhanced containment measures will include cease work orders for specific areas in the mining sector, screening, wider testing, checkpoints and other measures in several locations within regions 1 and 7”, the release said. Specific details will be provided subsequently.
“These measures are necessary and urgent by the medical experts so as to prevent the wider spread of COVID-19 in these two regions along with other regions”, the release said. Yesterday, 21 new cases of COVID-19 were reported, the single highest daily figure and calling into question the effectiveness of the task force’s measures.
The release said that the emergency meeting was chaired by Chairman of the NCTF, de facto Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and attended by Vice Presidents Khemraj Ramjattan (de facto Minister of Public Security) and Sydney Allicock (de facto Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs), de facto Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence, de facto Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, de facto Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, de facto Minister of Education Dr. Nicolette Henry, Pan-American Health Organisation-World Health Organisation (PAHO-WHO) Country Representative Dr. William Adu-Krow, UNICEF Country Representative Sylvie Fouet, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Karen Gordon-Boyle, multiple Permanent Secretaries and several technical and medical experts from the Ministry of Public Health, the Health Emergency Operations Centre and the Guyana Defence Force.
Guyana confirmed 21 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday, 18 of which are in the Moruca sub-district of Region 1, and inclusive of 11 teachers (in Moruca), the release said.
