Communities in Region Five, Ten being monitored as cases spike

– Minister urges

The Ministry of Health is monitoring communities in the Upper Demerara-Berbice Region (Region Ten) and Moraikobai, Mahaica-Berbice (Region Five) as those areas recorded spikes in COVID-19 cases.

Minister, Hon. Dr Frank Anthony, said the cases identified in Linden (Wismar and Amelia’s Ward) have been isolated and the numbers are expected to lessen within a week.

“We did a special exercise where we went out to areas and did testing last week.  We brought back those test results into the lab and checked them and we now have about 29 cases around that area,” Dr. Anthony said in Monday’s COVID-19 update.

A similar exercise was conducted in Moraikobai.

“It’s like a mobile type of testing and again, we have seen a number of cases; we have had 29 positive cases in Moraikobai…We will continue to monitor it.”

The Ministry has also recorded 20 imported cases.

“The mere fact we are detecting positive cases shows the system is working. We know that it’s the holiday season and there might be an increase in traffic, more people want to come home, but again, we want people to be vigilant and to ensure that they abide by the rules that we have,” Dr. Anthony said.

Persons are required to have a negative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test which is no older than 72 hours or three days, to enter Guyana. However, if the test has exceeded the 72-hour timeframe but is within seven days, travellers are required to submit to another test upon their arrival. Minister Anthony said while in the past, there were some challenges locating persons who enter the country, systems have been put in place to confirm the contact data provided by travellers to ensure proper monitoring.