Minster of Health, Dr Frank Anthony yesterday announced the extension of the current COVID-19 emergency measures as the new government moves to “overhaul” the public health response to the local outbreak.
The most recent iteration of the emergency measures, which came into effect on August 1st, were due to expire by the end of today.
However, in a statement issued yesterday Anthony announced that they will be extended until August 31st.
“The Government of Guyana has made a rapid assessment of the response to the COVID 19 pandemic and has found that it was fragmented, and incapable of administering the public health, economic and social measures needed to keep the population safe,” Anthony said in reference to the APNU+AFC administration’s management of the response up to August 2nd, when it finally exited office.
“The Government of Guyana has initiated a complete overhaul of the current public health response. Government has looked at the approach used in other territories, especially in the Caribbean, and has resolved that a multi-sector and multi-faceted approach has been the most successful model, with an aggressive policy of detection, contact tracing and if positive isolation. Over the last week the Government of Guyana engaged various sectors to developed clear guidelines on epidemiological, social and economic conditions to keep people safe, and put measures in place to support business and households,” he added.
The current emergency measures include the total lockdown of the Moruca sub-district in Region One as well as Eteringbang, Makapa, Kurushi, Arau and Oko in Region Seven. Places of worships were also permitted to reopen for services at the start of the month. However, attendance are restricted to 25% of the capacity of the building. The measures also provide for restrictions on social activities, mandatory mask wearing in public places and a countrywide curfew between 8pm and 6am.
Anthony told Stabroek News that there will be some slight modifications of the current measures but noted that they would be extended until the government along with the stakeholders develop very clear guidelines for the various sectors to operate. Further, he said, each sector should expect the new measures to be tailored to their various functions. He said the extension of the current measures would facilitate further assessments and consultations as updated protocols are developed, leading to the eventual and systemic opening up of the economy.
The APNU+AFC government had initiated a phased reopening. However, over the past month cases have spiked, particularly in the hinterland regions. Up to end of yesterday, the Health Ministry announced that 18 new COVID-19 cases were recorded, with the majority of the new cases coming from Region Four.
During the Ministry of Health’s live COVID-19 update yesterday, Chief Medical Officer, Dr Shamdeo Persaud revealed that the total number of cases increased to 649, with the 18 new cases being recorded after 171 more persons were tested for the virus.
Stabroek News observed that from the changes in the regional distribution of COVID-19 cases released by the ministry, 12 of the new cases were recorded in Region Four, while two more were recorded in Region Nine and four in Region Ten.
Persaud also reported that 104 persons are currently in institutional isolation, while 73 persons are in institutional quarantine and six persons in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit. “The remainder are in approved home isolation,” he said.
Additionally, 104 more persons have recovered, increasing the total number of recoveries to 306. This is as a result of the updated guidelines set out by the World Health Organization (WHO) for releasing COVID-19 patients from isolation, which allows for the release of asymptomatic patients from isolation 10 days after a positive test.
However, some of the breakdowns released by the ministry in recent days do not correlate to the overall numbers. Asked about this yesterday, Anthony explained that the persons who are in charge of updating the dashboard are making errors as it relates to the daily COVID-19 statistics.
“We are trying to change it to try to get more information on it and our staff have been making some errors or whatever and I’m trying to get somebody to sort it out. That’s an in-house thing that we need to do so I’m hoping that we can get that fixed because it was brought to my attention so I’m trying to fix that,” he explained
