A woman who recently returned to Guyana has tested positive for COVID-19, prompting Region Ten officials to call for stricter quarantine protocols to curb the spread of the disease in the region.
The woman was among cruise ship workers who had been stranded overseas due to COVID-19 restrictions. Both she and her husband, also a cruise ship worker, eventually returned home to Linden after they were able to secure places on a repatriation flight some three weeks ago. The Public Relations Officer for Region 10 Rawle Nelson told Sunday Stabroek that both were tested for COVID-19 after the region was finally notified of their return and while the husband tested negative, the wife tested positive. He explained that this discovery was made some two weeks after they returned.
For this reason, regional authorities, including Regional Health Officer Dr Pansy Armstrong and the Regional Executive Officer Orrin Gordon, and the region’s COVID-19 Coordinator Dr Michael Marks, have reached out to the Ministry of Public Health to have stricter quarantine protocols implemented as they believe the current arrangements are not enough.
In order to be repatriated to Guyana, which has closed its airspace to commercial passenger flights due to the pandemic, Guyanese nationals are required to obtain negative results from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) diagnostic test, which they are required to secure within 48 hours before their return flights. Upon arrival here, they are then required to quarantine themselves at home for seven days.
The Region Ten officials, however, think more vigilance is needed.
The woman who recently tested positive after returning home did not know she had the fatal disease managed to visit a bank and a supermarket before she learned of her positive test result. This has alarmed regional officials, who are worried that even more persons could have been infected, and as a result these officials want more emphasis to be placed on the protocols being followed when persons return to Guyana.
The regional officials believe persons need to be kept at a facility immediately after returning and should be tested again to ensure they did not get infected while on the flight or during the time either immediately before or after returning.
The regional authorities believe that the woman may have been infected prior to her return. Nelson noted that if the Regional and Health Executive Officers were notified sooner of their return, they could have conducted the testing much earlier and an indication of when she contracted the disease would have been made sooner.
Nelson said that the woman was one of eight persons who were tracked down and tested after the Health Ministry informed the region of the names of the returning residents. With this information, the region’s officials were able to track down some persons but it must be noted that some others have not yet been contacted. There has also been information about one person going to the interior upon arrival.
The region wants persons not to be allowed to travel to Linden after returning home unless they have tested negative as the region does not want any more cases. Up to yesterday the region had at least 11 COVID-19 cases.
Another area of concern is the reliance on phone calls to ensure that persons abide by the mandatory home quarantine.
