…patient stayed at local journalist who is recovering from virus

An elderly male resident of the Moruca sub-region in the North West District has tested positive for the Coronavirus, the Regional Health Officer (RHO), Dr Steven Cheefoon has confirmed.

Dr Cheefoon on Thursday afternoon urged residents in the region to take all necessary health precautions during an interview on Radio Mabaruma, the National Communications Network (NCN) relay station. The new case is the second recorded case in Region One.
Dr Cheefon said that the medical team at Moruca has been working hard in the preparation process to fight COVID-19.He said that since the medical team at Mabaruma was able to manage the first case recorded there, that knowledge was shared with the medical teams across the region including Moruca.

The RHO said that the new case will be placed at an isolation facility at Moruca.
Reports are that the case may be an imported one, since the individual travelled to the area a few weeks ago. He was tested previously but the results returned negative.
Reports are that the man stayed at newspaper journalist, who is his nephew. The journalist tested positive for COVID-19 a few weeks ago.

The first case recorded in Region One was that of a female of Mabaruma in April. That patient has since recovered from the virus.

The village council at Santa Rosa, the largest populated Amerindian settlement in Guyana, recently tightened its travel restrictions on passenger boats which were relaxed several weeks ago.

Toshao Whanita Phillips noted last week that all boat services operating into the sub-region will be suspended for a period of six weeks from May 18, 2020. She said too that no boats from the Pomeroon River will be allowed to transport persons into Moruca.

The Ministry of Public Health has noted that a total of 7 cases have been Region 7, a worrying development. ”This is not good. My fellow Guyanese this is the situation that we were working so hard to prevent,”Dr. Ertenisa Hamilton, Director of Primary Health Care Services noted in the ministry’s daily COVID-19 update.

Dr Hamilton noted that in Guyana, the total number of persons tested is 1329, with the total number of negative cases being 1202.