Batavia Deputy Toshao recounts family’s battle with COVID-19

Murphy Gomez

In an effort to ensure that their two-year-old child didn’t contract the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) from them, a couple in Batavia revealed that they had to sleep with masks on because they had no one to take care of their child after they were informed that they were infected with the disease which claimed six lives in the Cuyuni/Mazaruni region.

Murphy Gomez, 36, and his wife Roxanne, 30, both of whom are from Batavia, tested positive for COVID-19 in late July. Gomez, who is the Deputy Toshao of the small indigenous community told Stabroek News that he began experiencing mild symptoms of the virus two weeks before being tested which included tiredness, mild fever and headache along with diarrhoea.  However, at that time, he said, it did not even cross his mind that he could’ve been infected with COVID-19.