Guyanese adhering to curfew amid COVID-19 – PM Nagamootoo

DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, April 15, 2020

The Hon. Moses Nagamootoo, Prime Minister of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana has stated that the level of compliance in Guyana’s ten administrative regions has been good during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“So far the compliance with the curfew has been between 90 to 100 percent. I believe that is commendable but not the ideal,” he said during an interview with Trinidadian Journalist, Wesley Gibbings, on TTT Live Online.

Explaining further, he said that in some isolated cases, minibus operators in Guyana have taken more passengers than they were allowed during a single trip during this social distancing period.

“They are allowed one half of their regular capacity to facilitate social distancing but there have been occasions when they have been in breach. But in terms of getting people off the streets, night clubs and bars, they have complied, there is a willingness to comply” PM Nagamootoo stated.

Describing COVID-19 as invisible but not invincible, the Prime Minister told Gibbings, “I believe if we all garner our strengths and discipline, it falls for the best in us to fight it and defeat it.”

On Guyana’s borders with Brazil, Suriname and Venezuela the Prime Minister assured these are closed and the regional authorities have collaborated.

“They are cooperating with us and setting up some restrictive measures, our greatest challenge is preventing persons coming from Venezuela, though we have welcomed persons from Venezuela on humanitarian grounds. We are doing pretty well so far.”

PM Nagamootoo made it clear that “everything is being done to protect the society, to ensure public safety and to ensure we do not lose loved ones.”

Addressing the matter of Guyanese stuck overseas; in New York, Canada, Miami and other Caribbean countries, requesting permission to return to Guyana, the Prime Minister called for patience and understanding.

“We would want them to come back home, but because we have been establishing alternative facilities to quarantine people who come into the country; we are asking them to sit it out a little while longer until this first period of restraint is completed,” the prime Minister said.