No confirmed cases of COVID  19 in Region 5

– Officials working assiduously to maintain current status

DPI Guyana, Friday, July 17, 2020

To date Region 5, Mahaica-Berbice has remained COVID-free and officials of the Regional Emergency Operations Centre (REOC) at Fort Wellington are working assiduously to keep it that way.

Regional Health Officer Dr. Desmond Nicholson noted that the quarantine measures are working effectively; which means in the event of a case being encountered his team can move swiftly to locate any infected persons, their contacts and ensure that quarantine is carried out.

“We do not want a situation, where, if we do get a case, we find that there are five or six satellite areas within the region. If that happens then we would not be able to keep it contained anymore; it will have to be mitigated because there will be too many active sites too many clusters for us to control,” he explained.

Expressing satisfaction with the success the region has had thus far in preventing the importation and spread of the virus, Dr. Nicholson reiterated, “We  continue to follow the guidelines; we are maintaining the systems that have been put in place and we continue to put our best foot forward.”

Deputy Director of the REOC, Dr. Alanna James said the centre continues to screen persons at health centres, hospitals and checkpoints placed at strategic locations in the region as well as conducting any necessary follow up work at the REOC.

She also commended Government agencies – the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI) the MMA/ADA and the Guyana Police Force who have been assisting the work of the REOC.

GPL and GWI have instituted screening for visitors and have been given a protocol to report on any cases of elevated temperature encountered during such screening of visitors to their offices.

Meanwhile, the police have been ensuring compliance with the curfew and restrictions required by the COVID 19 regulations. Scores of persons have been charged and placed before the Court and have either been fined or ordered to do community service as a penalty.

Deputy Police Regional Commander Jermaine Dufu disclosed that the members of the Force have recently been targeting business owners who encourage customers to congregate in the vicinity of their businesses.

He said the aim is to encourage these business owners to be more proactive in discouraging persons from breaching social distancing rules.

The Police are actively monitoring the beaches where persons have tended to congregate and have also decided earlier this week to grant motorists a grace period of up to 8pm before closing the public highway until 6am.

On Thursday the National COVID-19 Task Force disclosed that the new 8pm to 6 am curfew will only be in effect on Saturdays and Sundays in Region Five. Similar relief was granted to Region 6, East Berbice-Corentyne.

The curfew will be in effect for ALL other regions every day of the week.