Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony yesterday said that local authorities have received no reports of a COVID-19 variant in Guyana.
The Minister made this remark during his COVID-19 update in response to Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reports confirming that cases of the P1 variant which originated in Brazil have been recorded here.
The minister noted that health authorities here are not aware if any variants have been circulating in the country as limited genetic sequencing has been done to test for the variants. “We don’t know what are the different types of variants if they are any that are circulating in Guyana because from the limited amount of gene sequencing that was done on ten samples, we were not able to identify any such variants like P1 or any one of the others”, Dr Anthony informed.
Guyana, earlier this year had sent samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) for testing and the results which returned in February showed no trace of any of the new COVID-19 variants. No other samples were sent to the Agency or to any other institution for sequencing.
“So this is really news to us and I have since asked PAHO for a report pertaining to this disclosure and we are awaiting PAHO’s response”, Anthony said.
The minister noted that genetic sequencing was not a simple process and stated that the ministry continues to work with agencies to get that done. He went on to say that they have not yet succeeded in getting samples to those agencies.
In March, Anthony had announced a partnership with the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, USA, which has been conducting genetic sequencing research. Since that announcement no samples have been sent to the institution.
