Travel to and from Brazil has been halted as the authorities are concerned about the new COVID-19 variants being detected in the neighbouring country.
This was announced by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony yesterday during his daily COVID-19 update where he stated that the halting of travel between Guyana and Brazil is not an unexpected one, as there have been previous concerns about the variants circulating in Brazil.
“We have said before that we were concerned about the variants that are circulating in Brazil and closer to the borders with Guyana… We started by tightening up our land border… both on the Brazilian side and our side” the minister said, adding that authorities have increased the measures to stem cross border movement.
Anthony mentioned that even as the borders on land were tightened, they would also like to ensure that they restrict flights coming from Brazil to Guyana and vice versa. “So all flights are now restricted and again because we want to know more about those variants, before we can make other pronouncements. We are not the first country to restrict these flights; there are other countries who have done so and again it’s out of concern for the variants that are circulating.”
However he noted that a checkpoint has been opening on Thursdays to allow for the exchange of goods and services under strict guidelines.
“That is going to continue where we are going to allow on Thursdays that exchange of goods and services but we are going to tighten up the regime on how we are doing that and we want to increase patrols along the border to deter people from crossing illegally from one country to the other,” the minister informed.
Special provision for this was made in the recently gazetted COVID-19 Emergency Measures (No. 14) which extended the current safety measures to the end of February. This in turn means that the existing 10:30pm to 4:00am curfew will continue to the end of February along with all other precautionary measures which include the closure of bars and cinemas and the restriction on all parties.
