…17 arrested for breaching Covid-19 orders
Police on Tuesday night arrested 17 persons for breaching the COVID-19 regulations during a raid on Khan’s Hideout Bar at Montrose, East Coast Demerara. A similar operation was conducted at Mary’s Bar located at Crane, West Coast Demerara where several persons were also arrested.
Police said that all of the persons arrested will be prosecuted. Guyana has been struggling to contain the spread of the COVID-19 disease recording thus far some 737 cases. Within the last two weeks there have 236 new cases. Twenty-five persons have died as a result of the virus.
In a brief statement police said ranks from Regional Division 4’C’ led by a senior officer, acting on information between 17:15 hours and 17:45 hours Tuesday conducted an operation at Khan’s Hideout Bar located at lot 100 Second Street Montrose ECD. A total of seventeen persons were arrested for breaching the COVID-19 Orders. They were all taken into custody and placed on bail to attend Court.
In a Department of Public Information release on Tuesday Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony said following a rapid assessment conducted after the first few days in office, it was discovered that positive cases were understated under the previous APNU+AFC Administration, as testing was not conducted on a wide scale. Minister Anthony noted the claims that Regions Five and Six were COVID-free; this was false as no testing was being done in these areas.
The DPI said after both President Irfaan Ali and Anthony publicly declared that mass testing will begin, support has been pouring in from several donor agencies. Moreover, several thousand test kits have been acquired. Anthony, in an interview last week, revealed that the PPP/C Government has “started to do more testing. We have streamlined the laboratory to ensure that we can do more testing, and we have placed more testing kits in the various Regions.”
With the increased testing, the need for more staff to work and support this new mode of operation became evident. In this regard, the Health Ministry has been extensively planning ways in which teams can be made available to facilitate the ramped-up testing exercise. There are plans on stream for the laboratories to work on a 24-hour basis. This will allow for a faster turnaround time of samples being processed. Also, laboratories in regional hospitals will be able to process tests for their respective regions, while private laboratories in the city will lend support in processing samples.
