…husband, child, relative of dead woman all test positive
…Opposition Leader says it is an “existential threat”
Less than one week after a woman who arrived in Guyana from New York tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus and subsequently died, her husband, child and a close relative have all tested positive for the virus.
On Saturday evening, Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence confirmed three new cases.
In a confirmation statement issued through the Department of Public Information, it was stated that the three patients have been identified as the husband of the 52-year-old woman who died from the virus last week, one of her children and another person living at their residence on the East Coast Demerara.
The Public Health Ministry has also urged the public to remain calm.
Nevertheless, reports are that the three persons have been quarantined and further monitoring will follow.
The 52-year-old Guyanese, who had diabetes and hypertension, had arrived in Guyana on March 5 and five days later, she was displaying symptoms of coronavirus. A coronavirus test was conducted which showed positive results. She died at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) that same day.
Other family members were put under self-quarantine by health officials since the chain of contraction is high. However, this newspaper was told that not all of them adhered to the self-quarantine instructions.
Existential threat
Earlier on Saturday, Opposition Leader Bharrat Jagdeo addressed the seriousness of the novel coronavirus, which he labelled an “existential threat” to all Guyanese. Jagdeo reminded that anyone can contract the virus, which speaks about the extremity in implementing preventative measures.
“Our country can move on to address the threat of the coronavirus, which is an existential threat to all Guyanese. It does not discriminate on the basis on your race or your religion. If one person is contaminated or two persons, they can contaminate all of us. We’re all at risk,” the former Head of State directed as he advised persons to take preventative measures as prescribed by medical professionals.
According to Jagdeo, adequate resources are also needed to protect the populace.
“I want to urge every Guyanese to follow the advisories of our Ministry of Health, the professionals. Politicians should not be the ones making the advisories. We have health professionals across our country. They are the ones who should be in charge at this time and they must have all the resources necessary to protect our people,” he said.
The Opposition Leader added, “Follow the advisories. It is an existential threat for all of us. Sometimes, all of the differences we have can pail into insignificance when we’re faced with such a threat because our marketplaces are integrated…We need to understand that to know that we’re bound by a common destiny in this country”.
During this time, the Public Health Ministry has indicated that only its National Public Health Reference Laboratory is authorised and has the capacity to test for coronavirus.
President David Granger also recently announced the establishment of a task force, after discussions with officials from the Pan American Health Organisation/World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) in January. It is one of the measures employed to spearhead preventative actions.
Coronavirus is any of a group of RNA (ribonucleic acid) viruses that cause a variety of diseases in humans and other animals. Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a new strain that was discovered in 2019 and has not been previously identified in humans.
Thus far, screening remains in place for those persons arriving from high-risk countries. Seven countries – Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Brazil, French Guiana, Panama, St Vincent and the United States of America – have been added to the list of eight that was previously made public, including – People’s Republic of China, Italy, South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Malaysia and Iran.
After the first case of COVID-19 in Guyana, the Caribbean Airlines (CAL) cabin crew that was working on the flight and local medical staff who had direct contact with the 52-year-old woman were all quarantined.
Some precautionary measures outlined have requested that public gatherings and non-essential travel be discouraged.
Local health authorities have advised that if anyone is experiencing symptoms of coronavirus, they should contact the hotline on 227-4986 ext 215 or 624-3067 and a team would be sent to their location.
