Guyanese Must Comply With Safety Measures To Reduce COVID-19 Transmission: Health Minister

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (Thursday, February 11, 2021) — Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony, is encouraging the public to comply with instructions, given by medical teams and village and community leaders as they implement measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19.

The Minister made this appeal during his COVID-19 update, yesterday. He said despite COVID-19 spikes in some areas, persons continue to resist precautionary measures, jeopardising the public’s health.

Meanwhile, monitoring is ongoing in Waramadong, Cuyuni-Mazaruni (Region Seven) as the village has 47 active cases.

“So far, everybody we identified in that area, has had a very mild form of the disease, and we didn’t have anyone who needed hospitalisation or anything of the sort. So basically, it’s just to isolate them, monitor them, but if persons require additional medical attention, they would have to be sent out,” Dr. Anthony advised.

Waramadong’s community centre is being used as an isolation facility, along with one of the four dormitories of the Waramadong Secondary School, which is being utilised as an isolation centre for COVID-19 positive students.

Minister Anthony said medical teams in the area have been working, along with this and other communities in the Upper Mazaruni, to curb transmission of the disease. While some communities have been resistant to the engagement, others have been very cooperative, he revealed, adding that talks with the villages are ongoing.

“We hope that the village leaders, and so forth, would reconsider, because we are doing this to ensure the safety of the residents there. We need to determine if there are active cases in the communities and, if there are, we have to get them to take precautionary measures to prevent the spread of the disease,” the Health Minister said.

As part of their efforts to combat the disease in the Region, the teams have conducted sensitisation exercises, where they educated residents on the signs and symptoms of COVID-19 and the safety measures necessary to keep safe.