Gov’t steps-up fight against COVID-19 in hinterland regions

…to issue cease work order in mining areas
The National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), the Ministry of Public Health and various other ministries and government agencies along with non-governmental organisations on Monday evening held an emergency multi-stakeholder meeting on the alarming increase in confirmed COVID-19 cases in parts of regions 1 and 7.

Decisions were taken to implement enhanced containment measures within the affected areas in these regions and these will be gazetted shortly, the NCTF said in a statement Monday night. According to the body, the enhanced containment measures will include cease work orders for specific areas in the mining sector, screening, wider testing, checkpoints and other measures in several locations within regions 1 and 7. Specific details will be provided subsequently.

These measures are necessary and urgent by the medical experts so as to prevent the wider spread of COVID-19 in these two regions along with other regions. The emergency meeting was chaired by Chairman of the NCTF, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and attended by Vice Presidents Khemraj Ramjattan (Minister of Public Security) and Sydney Allicock (Minister of Indigenous Peoples Affairs), Minister of Public Health Volda Lawrence, Minister of Natural Resources Raphael Trotman, Minister of Communities Ronald Bulkan, Minister of Education Dr. Nicolette Henry, Pan-American Health Organisation-World Health Organisation (PAHO-WHO) Country Representative Dr. William Adu-Krow, UNICEF Country Representative Sylvie Fouet, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shamdeo Persaud, Deputy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Karen Gordon-Boyle, multiple Permanent Secretaries and several technical and medical experts from the Ministry of Public Health, the Health Emergency Operations Centre and the Guyana Defence Force.

Guyana confirmed 21 new cases of COVID-19 today, 18 of which are in the Moruca sub-district of Region 1, and inclusive of 11 teachers (in Moruca).