15 employees at Troy Resources test positive for COVID-19 

– company implements mandatory COVID-19 testing 

Fifteen employees of Troy Resources Limited have tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease, Village Voice Guyana has been reliably informed.

In a notice to staff and contracted workers at its Karouni, Region Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni) location, the company’s Human Resource Coordinator, Samantha Latchman indicated that all 15 employees were asymptomatic and are currently off-site and on home isolation.

“We were made aware of these positive cases from the onsite testing exercise that was held on October 7, 2020. A total of 186 samples were collected as not everyone subjected to a PCR test and at that time, it was not mandatory,” Latchman explained. She said given the rise in the positive cases, the gold mining company took a decision to implement stringent pre-travel screening.

In a press statement issued on Monday, October 12, 2020, the company, though not disclosing the number of confirmed cases, announced the implementation of mandatory COVID-19 testing across its entire operations. “In the wake of some of its employees testing positive for the Coronavirus, Troy Resources Guyana Inc. (TRGI) has ramped up its COVID response measures by implementing mandatory Covid-19 testing for all its employees at its Karouni mine site. The company is also mandating that all employees who are to be deployed to the Karouni mine site be tested, and show a negative result, prior to being allowed to travel into the site,” Troy Resources said in a statement.

It said the additional measures will supplement the existing safety protocols and coronavirus precautions already in place. According to the company, following the discovery of the positive cases, the COVID-19 Task Force, as well as representatives from The Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Public Health were immediately informed.

“The COVID task force is in support of the additional and mass testing being implemented by TRGI and all results are being shared with the COVID task force,” it said while assuring the press that established guidelines by the health authorities are being followed. “The costs for all testing will be covered by the company and will be done by a private service provider,” it said.

Initially, the gold mining company had told its staff and contracted workers that there was a dengue outbreak, and that steps were being taken to safeguard the health and wellbeing of all employees. “The dengue fever is spreading rapidly and anyone that has tested positive for same needs to be isolated until there is an available outbound,” a section of the notice read. But while the notice alluded to dengue, a number of the employees, who were tested by Eureka Lab on site, reportedly informed their colleagues that they were tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

The Coronavirus Disease affects persons in different ways, however, the common symptoms associated with the virus are fever, dry cough and tiredness. Like COVID-19, dengue brings with it a fever, however, the other symptoms are different and include nausea, vomiting, rash, aches and pain in the eyes, muscles, joints and bones.

The statement issued by the company comes one day after Village Voice Guyana broke the story that several employees were tested positive for the Coronavirus Disease. Troy Resources has approximately 300 employees at the project site at any one time. This consists of mainly of local staff who work in a shift rotation system of 4 weeks in two weeks out.

To date, there are 3, 521 confirmed cases of the Coronavirus Disease. According to a statistical report released by the Ministry of Health on Monday, October 12, 2020, 118 persons are in institutional isolation while 892 are in home isolation. Sixteen (16), the ministry says, are in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU).