Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony yesterday disclosed that medical teams along with Joint Services personnel have been dispatched to the three regions where screening points have been established to monitor persons who are travelling to the coastland and to conduct screening and testing if necessary.
Earlier this week, Director of the National COVID-19 Task Force Secretariat (NCTFS) Nazrul Hussain had informed that screening points had been established to monitor miners at Baramita in Region One, Puruni in Region Seven, and on the Unamco Road in Region Ten. He had also stated that this was a collaboration between the NCTFS, the Ministry of Health (MoH), the Joint Services, and the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission (GGMC).
In a COVID-19 update yesterday Anthony said, “Through operation COVI-Curb we have been going out to a number of communities and we will intensify that during [the] holiday season. We mentioned Bartica as a transition area, so what we have right now is three teams in three separate mining districts and we will be working with persons in those areas to identify if anyone has COVID-19.”
He noted that teams are equipped with antigen tests and if they suspect that a person may have COVID-19, those persons will be tested. “These teams have already been deployed… Hopefully we will be able to detect anyone that is positive. The areas that they have gone to are those areas that we expect persons would be coming from and passing Bartica through their way out to the coast. If we are able to identify the positives or the source we will isolate them and (that) prevents them from being exposed to other persons,” the minister added.
He noted that each team has a doctor assigned to it and with this initiative they are expecting some positive results. However, although testing is ongoing in Bartica, no new positive cases are being detected and it is anticipated that the number of active cases will reduce as persons are also recovering.
According to Minister Anthony, there are now 68 active cases in the town.
