Testing sites are open on the weekends – Health Minister urges persons to get tested, inoculated

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P, is encouraging more persons to get tested for COVID-19 on the weekends as testing sites are open to the public for both testing and vaccination on Saturdays and Sundays.

The minister was speaking during Monday’s COVID-19 update.   

“We are doing testing on the weekends. Unfortunately, we don’t see a lot of people coming on weekends to be either tested or vaccinated, so we have a number of sites that are open on the weekends,” Minister Anthony said.

Fixed vaccination sites have been established in all regions across Guyana, with more mobile sites established in hinterland regions.

Minister Anthony continues to encourage persons to visit any vaccination site and get inoculated with two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine along with a booster at the appropriate time.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony said while the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) grapples with COVID-19, it has not affected the delivery of service to citizens. 

“So, while we have some staff that are positive, that’s not going to affect the services that we deliver and it’s not only for GPHC, we have put those mitigation measures in place for all the hospitals and health centers across the country,” he said 

Minister Anthony added that measures have been put in place to manage the services of the hospital, when infected healthcare workers are isolated.

“We have put mechanisms in place at GPHC to be able to manage the services so when people go off, if they have tested positive, they have to isolate, so we have put contingency in place to deal with that.”

Further, he said persons in home isolation are being monitored by healthcare officials within the regions in which they reside.

“We had decentralised the monitoring of people so each region has their own responsibility for monitoring the persons within their region, so they have been checking in on those persons,” minister Anthony related.

Dr. Anthony also said there are staff members available to monitor the status of persons in Region Four. 

As of Monday, the country recorded 13, 644 active cases, with 153 of those persons being hospitalised across Guyana.