A two-week lockdown has been instituted at Orealla and its satellite village, Siparuta, in Region Six, after they recorded multiple cases of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in less than two weeks.
Statistics provided by the Ministry of Health (MoH) revealed that Orealla currently has 18 active COVID-19 cases, while Siparuta has 62. The Ministry confirmed that one person from Siparuta who was infected with COVID-19 died earlier this month. The elderly man died while receiving care at Skeldon Hospital, a few days after doctors began detecting cases in Siparuta. He reportedly had a stroke and died on the same day he received his COVID-19 test result.
According to Toshao of the two villages, Carl Peneux, the COVID-19 cases were detected as a result of students from Orealla and Siparuta being tested in Corriverton in order to return to school. He revealed that nine students were tested and one of them tested positive for the virus. The student who tested positive was isolated and contact tracing commenced after which testing was done in the community.
He said more than a dozen persons from the communities tested positive for COVID-19 during the first round of testing.
“The figures were very alarming, so the village councils decided to impose a lockdown. We took advice from the resident doctor. We informed the Regional Task Force and we informed the minister of Amerindian Affairs. We took that decision because cases were rising and so from today (yesterday) we began the lockdown for two weeks,” he said.
Peneux revealed that the Regional Officials and the Civil Defense Commission (CDC) offered their support and will be assisting them with supplies. However, he said, before implementing the lockdown, the village councils had discussed the situation and the Siparuta Village Council had started donating food stuff to every household in the community. He disclosed that the Village Council of Orealla will be embarking on a similar initiative next week.
Additionally, the Toshao said that the local police have agreed to assist with enforcing the lockdown measures as travel is restricted between Orealla and Siparuta. He noted that they are also restricting travel between Orealla and Corriverton and will only allow emergency travel.
Peneux noted that there are currently four doctors from the MoH in the two communities doing contact tracing and testing.
