After weeks without recording a positive case of COVID-19, Region Nine currently has at least nine active infections, which Regional Chairman Bryan Allicock says is a result of persons continuing to traverse between Guyana and Brazil.
A statement by the Regional Health Officer (RHO) Niaal Uthman revealed that majority of the positive cases are being kept in home isolation due to the fact that they are asymptomatic. It was also revealed that one of the positive case in being isolated in Region Eight after enquiries revealed that the person is from Region Nine but recently travelled to Region Eight to conduct business activities. That person tested positive for COVID-19 while in Region Eight.
In addition, the RHO revealed that 18 persons who were in contact with the positive cases are currently in home quarantine. So far, the region has one recorded four deaths as a result of COVID-19.
The region is currently awaiting the results for four more persons who are in home quarantine.
According to Allicock, the new COVID-19 cases are from Potarinau and its satellite villages, Katuur and Baitoon in the South Central Rupununi, and St. Ignatius and Lethem in the Central Rupununi.
He said, initially the region only had three active cases in these communities, all of which were imported from Brazil.
“We started getting cases because people are refusing to adhere to the restrictions…. Yes, they are wearing masks but some people have been travelling back and forth between the Region and Brazil and that is how come after a couple of weeks we started getting back COVID-19 cases,” he said.
The Regional Chairman went on to say that after the first three cases were recorded, when they tested relatives of these persons they found that these close contacts of the COVID-19 positive patients were infected with the virus and hence the rise in cases. “It is only when those persons returned to Guyana that we found that they were positive,” he said.
Presently, Allicock added, the situation is under control but the number of infections is likely to rise because people are traversing between the two countries and regional authorities are unable to control that particular situation.
“We can’t control that situation, we don’t have enough person to control that, the border is very large. We don’t have the manpower,” Allicock lamented.
Potarinau and its two satellite village were the first communities in Region Nine to record cases of COVID-19. This was as a result of someone from Potarinau travelling to a nearby community in Brazil. Upon that person’s return to Guyana, he visited not only Potarinau but its satellite villages as well.
With strict measures, Allicock had stated in a previous report, they were able to control the spread of the disease and in October and November, the region did not record a single case of COVID-19 although testing was ongoing during those months.
“The border between Brazil is always a problem,” he said.
