Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony has provided details of government’s continuing plan to combat COVID-19.
The minister made these disclosures during yesterday’s sitting of Parliament after former minister, Dr Karen Cummings queried the minister about details of the government’s comprehensive plan for managing the spread of the novel coronavirus.
The health minister stated that the comprehensive plan is currently with the stakeholders who are implementing its various sections. The sections of the plan, he said, cover the procurement of personal protective equipment, increased testing, contact tracing, the provision of isolation and quarantine facilities, and the better clinical management of patients.
As part of the increased testing plan, Anthony stated that they are employing the use of GeneXpert machines to provide point of care testing in several regions.
“As of yesterday we have now placed the GeneXpert machine in Lethem so that we can do point of care testing there. And one such machine is in Region One and during this week we will send a team out to train those persons in Region One so that we can start utilising that GeneXpert machine there”, Dr Anthony informed, adding that there is also an additional GeneXpert machine in Region Six and another in Region Ten.
The minister stated that they are also looking at procuring two more machines for other regions.
Originally designed to test for tuberculosis, the GeneXpert machine has been reconfigured by its manufacturers to test for COVID-19. The tests are highly accurate and work by detecting the unique genetic profile of the COVID-19 virus.
Dr Cummings went on to ask if there are plans to scale up the purchase of vaccines for the virus in light of the spread of the new variants. The minister responded that indeed, Guyana has been looking at the various strains of the virus especially those which have been recorded in Brazil.
“We have been looking at that particular strain and what is happening in Manaus and the state of Roraima and that is one of the reasons why we have closed the border between Guyana and Brazil and we have also stopped flights from Guyana to Brazil and vice versa,” he explained.
Dr Anthony told the House that the B117 strain of the virus that was first found in the United Kingdom is now in 80 different countries while another strain which was first discovered in South Africa has been found in 40 different countries. Another strain which was originally discovered in Japan and which was spread by travellers coming from Brazil is now in ten different countries.
“So we are monitoring the different strains and what is happening, we participate on a weekly basis with the WHO as they tell us more about these strains and what is happening with them, we are part of a network of 22 laboratories in South America and the Caribbean that has been monitoring and doing gene sequencing so that we can know about the circulation of the different strains,” he stated.
He added that Guyana has a partnership with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) through which Guyana will be sending samples each month to have gene sequencing done. “We have sent the first ten samples and we are awaiting the results.”
Meanwhile Guyana is working on a partnership with the Pan American Health Organization to be able to send samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States to be able to add to the range of sequencing done, Anthony added.
