Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony and Canadian High Commissioner to Guyana Lilian Chatterjee recently discussed the possibility of developing an application (App) that will track COVID-19 patients or persons who have been tested here for the disease.
This was disclosed in a statement from the Ministry of Health (MoH), which said the Minister met with Chatterjee on Wednesday at his Brickdam Office in Georgetown.
During the meeting, the statement noted, Chatterjee said that a niche area for the Canadian High Commission is the provision of technical assistance in the health care field, while noting that this includes the possibility of developing an app geared at tracking COVID-19 patients or those who have been tested.
“Dr Anthony indicated that the development of the app will improve the capacity of officers at the Port Health Department who are stationed at the respective ports of entry, since it will help with more effective surveillance of persons coming into Guyana,” the statement read.
In addition, Anthony noted that support is needed in the updating of several Acts relating to the health sector, including the Public Health Act and the Food and Drug Act, among others.
Apart from that, the statement said that the opportunity exists for technical assistance to be made available for the development of a new strategic plan for the Ministry of Health, the development of Guyana’s research capacity, and the introduction of pre-exposure prophylaxis (or PrEP) and trans-medicine.
Other topics discussed at the meeting includes Canada’s support of Guyana’s response to the COVID-19, private sector interests coming out of Canada, collaborations with Canadian based medical teams, and SMART hospitals.
Also present at the meeting were Counsellor for Development Cooperation at the High Commission Janine Cocker and Permanent Secretary at the MoH, Malcolm Watkins.