Most COVID-19 cases in Region 9 are imported from Brazil – REO

Authorities in Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) are alarmed at the increase of the coronavirus cases in the district – the majority of which they say are imported from neighbouring Brazil.

In one day alone, Region Nine recorded a shocking 19 positive COVID-19 cases, bringing the total active cases in the region to 36.
In an interview with Guyana Times, the Regional Executive Officer (REO), Carl Parker, revealed that the majority of these cases originated from neighbouring Brazil – where there is an outbreak of the virus with more than 2,480,888 confirmed cases and 88,470 deaths.
Guyana – Brazil’s international border at the Takutu River Bridge – was officially closed to prevent the spread of the deadly disease, but Brazilians are still making their way into Guyana.
“The cases are basically imported cases from Brazil. We have some level of local transmission, but by and large, they are imported. Especially down in the South-Central Rupununi,” the REO explained during a telephone interview.
He pointed out that the residents within the region are going about their daily business as though the country has returned to normalcy.
“We have been advocating for the measures to be put in place, but people are just not adhering to them. Measures are there, information are there, but just that residents they are just carrying on like things are normal,” Parker explained.
Moreover, the REO expressed concerns that residents are also hiding these trespassers in their community.
“We had reports that was confirmed by Toshao of Aishalton that residents are encouraging relatives to come across the border and hiding them in the village.”
He added, “Everybody coming from the border has to be quarantined, but the residents are not complying and hiding their relatives in the villages, and the Toshaos have not been proactive enough,” Parker concluded.
Just recently, the South Rupununi District Council (SRDC) had ordered a complete lockdown for 21 villages in that district. This was in light of coronavirus being detected in Indigenous communities across the country.
After the outbreak earlier this year, the District Council had blocked several illegal crossings along the Guyana-Brazil border, in order to reinforce the porous border. In a subsequent release, the SRDC had said due to the inadequate healthcare systems and supplies in the region, residents are extremely vulnerable to diseases, especially the novel coronavirus.
The region’s first confirmed COVID-19 case was a dual citizen who had entered Guyana illegally from Brazil. He later escaped from a treatment facility in Guyana and returned to Brazil. Several persons would have been exposed here to COVID-19 as a result of his movements.