–as video surfaces of doctors attempting to ‘kick in’ door at the East Bank facility

A VIDEO is currently going the rounds on Facebook, showing persons, presumably doctors, trying to “kick down” a door at the Diamond Hospital.
The video, which was posted on Saturday, shows two individuals trying to break open a door, which was purportedly barricaded on the inside by someone said to be infected with the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

Doctors were unwavering in their effort to break the door, until other persons, supposedly patients of the isolation facility at Diamond, intervened.
The Guyana Chronicle understands that the patient barricaded the door because he was re-tested recently, and the result came back negative, but the authorities were attempting to place a new COVID-19 patient with him.

Several health officials were contacted by this publication, but those attempts to get clarity on the matter proved futile.
Just recently, the Guyana Chronicle reported that doctors, nurses and other frontline workers at the Diamond Hospital have been “going beyond the call of duty” to deliver care to persons who contracted the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The care being delivered is, however, not just the traditional medical care, but also that of a parent or guardian. Regional Health Officer (RHO) of Region Four (Demerara-Mahaica), Dr. Quincy Jones found the need to justify the work of frontline workers at Diamond, after Stabroek News had published an article titled “COVID-19 patients fear poor conditions at Diamond Isolation Unit delaying recovery.”

Dr. Jones, in a press statement, said the article contained several half-truths and fallacies, which were repeated without evidence to support it. “We are truly disappointed that instead of celebrating the very hard and dedicated work of the doctors and nurses who leave their homes and live in the unit to provide medical care and other services to these patients for weeks at a time, we are instead forced to pen a response to an article such as the one mentioned above,” lamented the RHO.

Frontline workers at the Diamond facility started working over-time, after a COVID-19 isolation unit was established there. And according to Dr. Jones, since the establishment of the unit, the facility has been taking most of the confirmed COVID-19 patients, with the largest number being 52 cases at one time, a figure which was recorded just Sunday.

There are currently 66 active cases of COVID-19 and the persons, housed at Diamond, represent over 85 per cent of the total active cases. The work of frontline workers has so far resulted in over 30 persons recovering and being discharged from the facility, since the pandemic reached Guyana. To date, a total of 62 persons have recovered from the COVID-19 disease.

Clearly established and defined systems compounded by the commitment of frontline workers, resulted in the Diamond Hospital producing more 65 per cent of the recovered patients.