In the wake of Moraikobai in Region Five being declared a COVID-19 hotspot, a medical team is to be deployed there today but the head of the community has lamented poor communication on the virus from the authorities.
Toshao Colin Adrian yesterday said the Village Council is in the dark about the COVID-19 situation in the community and his expression of frustration to the Regional Health Officer (RHO) has resulted in persons believing that Moraikobai leaders are being uncooperative.
On Tuesday, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony stated that the Ministry is hoping for cooperation from the Moraikobai Village Coun-cil so that they could contain the spread of the virus in the community. He said that 33 active cases were recorded in the community over the weekend.
In an interview with Stabroek News yesterday, Adrian said that they hardly receive information on what is going on in the community regarding the COVID-19 situation. He added that they are not even aware when the health team leaves and enters the community and this has been a challenge for the council because they are not being told anything.
“No update is being provided and I believe that there should be daily updates on the situation,” he told Stabroek News.
He said that there has not been a single discussion about the situation between the village council and health officials and expressed surprise when he was made aware that the Minister had implied that they were being uncooperative.
“Even if they don’t want to tell us anything I think they should respect us and inform us when they are entering or leaving the community”, he said.
Adrian added that despite the community having had cases since November, they had not received aid or been offered any assistance from anyone. He acknowledged that he doesn’t know the various protocols that the Ministry of Health is using to deal with the situation and this is something that needs to be addressed.
He stated that the RHO recently approached him and asked that a lockdown be instituted in the village. He said that he told the RHO that he had no problem with that but expressed his frustration over the lack of collaboration between health authorities and the village council.
“Now all over the media we seeing that we are not being cooperative,” he said. “We never sat down to a discussion but I have never discussed a way forward with the RHO. We need to coordinate with each other more so that we can contain the situation,” he said.
Attempts by Stabroek News to contact the RHO for a comment were unsuccessful.
Yesterday, Anthony stressed that they need the cooperation of communities to curb the spread of the virus. He revealed that a health team will be deployed to the community today in the company of Regional Authorities who are going to speak with village council and residents.
“Having analyzed the results that came out from the weekend exercise, we have decided with the Regional Health Authori-ties, we will be sending back a new team to have a more permanent presence at least for the next two to three weeks in Moraikobai. In addition to that, the regional authorities (will also travel to the area) so that they can talk more directly with the villagers and the village council to get them to understand the importance of this exercise,” he said.
The minister noted that they are happy to get the support from the regional administration and this would no doubt help them to do an effective job. He said that he is hopeful that they will be able to manage cases in the coming weeks even as he revealed that they are expecting an increase.
He is also hoping that the Village Council will assist them with contact tracing because the village is isolated and people live far apart from each other.
“We will have to find those persons where they are living and give advice to the household on how to isolate themselves and try to ensure that minimum contact so that we can reduce the spread within the village itself. There is a lot of work to be done but I think the team are capable of handling that,” he added.
