Region 9 COVID patient visited many indigenous communities - Regional Chairman

Several indigenous communities in Region Nine will be on complete lockdown allowing only persons transporting food supplies to enter and leave their communities after contact tracing revealed that the region’s first coronavirus disease (COVID-19) patient visited a number of communities in the North and South Rupununi.

This was disclosed by the Regional Chairman of Region Nine, Bryan Allicock, who told Stabroek News via telephone that the Regional Health Emergency Committee (RHEC) held a meeting with village leaders of communities in the South Rupununi yesterday after they discovered that the region’s first confirmed case of the coronavirus went into a number of indigenous villages including Aishalton, Aranaputa, Karasabai and Marudi.

Region Nine’s first case of coronavirus was confirmed on Monday. The patient was identified as Hamlett Da Silva. According to regional officials, Da Silva permanently resides in Brazil, where he got infected with the deadly respiratory disease. After falling sick, Da Silva was reportedly diagnosed with malaria in Brazil and although the Guyana/Brazil border is closed, he made his way over to Guyana.

According to Allicock, when Da Silva entered the country he made his way to Monkey Mountain, a community in Region Eight after which he made his way to Region Nine. He entered many communities along the way to Lethem after which he travelled to Aishalton and then to Marudi before making his way back to Lethem.

“He went into the South Rupununi so he touched all those areas before we discovered that he was infected with the disease,” Allicock stated.

He noted that health officials are currently tracing the persons Da Silva had been in direct contact with in the various indigenous communities adding that Toshaos in the South Rupununi have agreed to assist in contacting those persons who had been in contact with the patient.

Da Silva has since escaped from an isolation facility in Lethem and is currently being monitored at a facility in Brazil.

Allicock informed that four persons who have been in direct contact with Da Silva have since come forward to health officials and were placed under quarantine.

He further pointed out that during the meeting with toshaos of the South Rupununi communities yesterday, it was discussed and agreed that no one will be allowed to enter their respective communities.

“Well what the toshaos are going to do is shut down everything with only the essential services being allowed to operate. No passengers will be permitted to travel anywhere. Business people will have to give the bus people a list of what they will need. The driver and the

conductor will purchase whatever is on the list from Lethem and take them back to the communities,” Allicock stated before stressing that it is vital to implement these measures because of the lack of proper health facilities in the various communities.

He noted that these measures were only discussed with leaders of the South Rupununi communities but the North Rupununi communities will soon be notified and asked to implement the same measures. Further, he noted, this will not be difficult as many indigenous communities in the region had constructed gates and checkpoints at the entrances of their villages. He said they have also been adhering to the six-to-six curfew imposed by the Ministry of Public Health.

Allicock stated that although many restrictions have been put in place to

prevent strangers from entering the various communities, persons especially miners have not been adhering to those measures. As a result village councils would refuse entry to certain individuals but those persons would make use of other

routes to reach their destinations.

“Persons bully their way through especially miners so they want to close their villages completely. They had an incident where a miner was sent back but he went through the backtrack so the police are doing investigations into those kind of matters,” he stated before revealing that the persons who stole a number of items from a building that was being refurbished for use of a COVID-19 quarantine facility have been arrested and jailed. Those items are still in the possession of the police.

In addition, Allicock said that people who are found breaking curfew are being placed under a 14-day quarantine after which they will be charged. He added that police will be patrolling the roads in Region Nine with the help of the community policing groups and the military.

Meanwhile, Allicock mentioned that the RHEC is actively considering a regional lockdown. “We are hoping that the business people who have buses running from Lethem to Georgetown would cease completely. That is the kind of lockdown we talking about. We don’t want anybody to leave the region or come into the region,” he declared.

However, he acknowledged that this measure will have to be approved by the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF). A proposal will soon be drafted and forwarded to the NCTF.