Virgil Ferreira, a former administrator of the Amerindian Hostel, has been identified as one of the persons who recently died after contracting the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Region One.
Ferreira, 64, who was a Community Development Officer (CDO) in Baramita, Region One, died last week Monday shortly after displaying symptoms of COVID-19.
The Toshao of the community, Sharmaine Rambajue, revealed that she was informed that Ferreira was sick with a cold prior to his death and was only tested for COVID-19 shortly after his death. When his results returned a few days later, it revealed that he was infected with the disease.
In a post on Facebook, Minister of Amerindian Affairs Pauline Sukhai and her staff expressed condolences to the family and friends of Ferreira. The post stated that Ferreira served as CDO attached to the ministry for several years and he was the only CDO responsible for one village, Baramita, due to the hardship the Carib community was facing with miners, suicide, alcoholism and poor governance.
According to the Ministry, he was also an advisor to the Baramita Village Council before becoming a CDO and served as an administrator of the Amerindian Hostel. While he was working and living in Baramita up to the time of his death, he was originally from Moruca.
Meanwhile, Rambajue noted that besides Ferreira, only two other persons were recently confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 but this was a few weeks ago and those persons have recovered. She added that Ferreira’s death meant that there are active COVID-19 cases in the community, which can only be detected if mass testing is done.
The Toshao noted, however, that the community is presently not prepared to deal with an outbreak as there are only three nurses stationed at the community’s health centre. She noted that since the outbreak in Region One, not much testing was done in the community, which might’ve led to cases going undetected.
In addition, Rambajue said, persons are still travelling in and out of the community despite the national curfew and persons are still refusing to adhere to the COVID-19 measures that were imposed by the government. Currently, she said, they have no plan to combat the disease because the community is not prepared for a total lockdown.
She noted that they might need to monitor persons travelling in and out the community but that has proven ineffective in the past.
