All members of Region Nine’s COVID-19 Rapid Response Team have been quarantined after they came into contact with persons infected with the respiratory disease.
This has caused a major setback as it relates to the efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the region, the Regional Executive Officer (REO) Carl Parker has said.
Parker revealed that one of the doctors who volunteered to be part of the region’s Rapid Response Team recently tested positive for COVID-19. As a result, all the members of the Rapid Response Team were placed in quarantine. He added that the leader of the response team, who is also a doctor, was also quarantined after she came into contact with someone from the Education Department who had tested positive for the disease.
“So our fight in the region is being depleted because too many people are coming down with this thing [so] that is hard to avoid people with COVID,” he said.
Parker and his wife are also in quarantine after he came into contact with the doctor who tested positive for the disease. He stated that he is expected to be tested tomorrow.
He added that someone attached to the Region’s Accounting Unit also tested positive for the disease and the accounting staff was resultantly placed in quarantine.
“We are expecting a team of doctors shortly. They were supposed to come in today but because of the change in administration, I want to suspect the new minister will want to reexamine the intervention so we are hoping that they can come in before the week is out so they can start their operations because we really, really need all the help we can get… the entire team is down and they are under quarantine and that’s 14 days. We can’t wait 14 days,” the REO stated.
Parker revealed that the region had up to yesterday recorded a total of 102 confirmed cases of COVID-19, inclusive of five recoveries and one death. There are a total of 96 active cases of COVID-19 within the region.
Fifty-five of the COVID-19 cases were from the south Central Rupununi, with Potarinau being the hotspot. Potarinau has recorded 33 cases of COVID-19, while its satellite villages, Baitoon and Katuur, have each recorded eight cases. Quiko, a satellite village to Shulinab in the South Central Rupununi, has recorded five cases, while the community of Sand Creek has recorded one case.
In the North Rupununi, Aranaputa now has 12 cases of COVID-19, while Annai, Wowetta, and Rupertee have recorded 3, 20 and 2, respectively. In the case of Wowetta, Parker noted that he was very surprised that the disease had reached so far.
Meanwhile, the Central Rupununi has recorded 10 cases of COVID-19, Lethem has recorded eight cases, four of which are imported, while St Ignatius and Quarrie have each recorded one case.
The South Pakaraimas and Deep South Rupununi sub-districts remain free of COVID-19 to date. Although the COVID-19 situation in the region seems dire, Parker said that on the positive side a team from the Civil Defence Commission has started erecting pre-fabricated housing units in the region.
Overwhelmed
Parker disclosed that six had been erected while seven more arrived in Lethem on Wednesday. He noted that several of those are expected to be erected at Potarinau.
“Those (the housing units) will cater for patients who have to be isolated because if we bring all the patients to Lethem, eventually our system [will be overwhelmed]. In fact, our system is already overwhelmed. Accommodation is a problem and that’s why we have decided to put the facilities at the hotspots so we can treat the patients right at home and it would be beneficial to them because when we bring them to Lethem, it would be a change of diet so when they are at home they can still get their traditional food,” he said.
He added that currently 16 persons can be housed at the Regional Guesthouse, 19 at the old “malaria compound” and they have converted the hospital boardroom to an isolation facility, which can accommodate seven persons. He further revealed that there is a building that they are keeping reserved should someone who is pregnant becomes infected.
The REO noted that now that the CDC has erected the housing units, those would assist in accommodations for persons who have to be isolated. However, he said, the region is still facing difficulties as it relates to accommodating persons who have to be quarantined. He noted that the Eco Hotel has offered its services but the region is facing the expenses in that regard.
Meanwhile, he said that they are still advising people to adhere to the guidelines and precautionary measures but many are still refusing to do so. “Some people are adhering and some people aren’t and they are putting those who are adhering at risk and that’s the danger here,” he said.
Commenting on the situation in the South Pakaraimas and the Deep South Rupununi, Parker said that the leaders in those communities should continue what they are doing to ensure that the disease does not make its way into their communities. He noted that if they continue on their path, they will remain COVID-19 free.
However, he said, the region’s priority is to contain the COVID-19 outbreak within the communities that have recorded cases.
The region recorded its first COVID-19 case in May.
