…now better prepared for COVID-19 cases – Health Minister
Active COVID-19 cases in Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne) continue to show a downward trend. Two months ago, the region had more than 200 active COVID-19 cases. However, currently, there are 127 active cases in the region.
To help in the care of COVID-19 cases, a new Infectious Unit was on Saturday commissioned in the compound of the New Amsterdam Hospital.
The $41 million facility will boost Guyana’s capacity to manage COVID-19 patients while at the same time improving healthcare services.
The new Infectious Unit will be equipped with fifteen beds including a maternity unit.
The new infectious unit, New Amsterdam Hospital
Addressing a small gathering at Saturday’s commissioning ceremony, Region Six Chairman David Armogan pointed out that in the early days of the pandemic, the region did not have the capacity to house patients who needed to be isolated and the administration reached out to the Guyana Sugar Corporation (GuySuCo) Rose Hall Estate and this facility was able to be used as an isolation centre.
“Every day I used to get a complaint from people who were housed there but we still need to be grateful to GuySuCo for providing those facilities when things were bad. So today we recognise that there is a need for a permanent Infectious Unit where our patients can be comfortable and the team that is left in charge of looking after these patients is also comfortable,” he pointed out.
Patient care
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, who also spoke at the ceremony, said he is looking forward to a more elaborate plan as to what the New Amsterdam Hospital can do as it relates to patient care.
“Seventeen years ago, the profile of diseases was totally different, so, now we have to rethink what we are doing and also the types of surgeries and other services that we are offering they have to be radically different,” the MINISTER said.
“I know that the Sergeants have been doing a lot of laparoscopic surgeries and we want that to be one of the hallmarks that we have here. So, we have to make sure that they have the right equipment to be able to continue this type of surgery here at this hospital and it also would limit the time people spend in the hospital.”
He explained that while not much has been done in terms of providing infrastructure, they have been training persons hence boosting human resource. If we continue along this trajectory, he added, significant changes will be seen.
He noted that while COVID-19 is being managed, it is not the only thing that has to be done in the health sector.
“With this particular variant, Omicron that we have just gone through we don’t know what would be the next step. We don’t know what next will be coming because we still have a lot of people who are unvaccinated and there are reservoirs of mutations and what the next variant is going to be, we don’t know. So, these facilities are not going to be idle because for the next wave of COVID infections, we are even better prepared and when we get out of these waves of COVID infections, we would repurpose this to ensure that we can use it for other types of infectious diseases. So, it is important that we have these resources,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, Regional Health Officer Dr Vishalya Sharma pointed out that of the 127 active COVID-19 cases, 39 are in New Amsterdam and 37 on the Corentyne. The town of Corriverton currently has 19.
East Canje, which was for several months been considered a hotspot had 32 active cases as of Saturday.
“During the second spike, we would have had five epicentres with cases in Orealla. Today we would have come such a far way in the region that even if there is an outbreak in Orealla, we don’t need to send a team because they now have the capacity to deal with it,” the RHO pointed out while noting that this was made possible by the work put in by the Regional COVID Taskforce. (G4)
