IN an effort to combat and contain the spread of the coronavirus, the Regional Health Services in Region Six (East Berbice Corentyne), through the Ministry of Public Health, has established a COVID-19 testing unit in the compound of the Port Mourant Hospital where samples will be
taken from persons to be sent to the National Reference Laboratory.

Speaking with the media, Dr. Sonye Lord, who heads the facility, related that the site commenced official work on Thursday and will be opened from 09:00 to 15:00 hrs. On that note, Dr. Lord is appealing to residents who may be experiencing signs or symptoms or who may have been in contact with any one experiencing same, to visit the facility to be screened.

She explained that there are two levels of screening that will follow: primary and secondary, depending on the symptoms.

“With primary screening, the temperature will be taken and a series of questions will be asked. If you do meet the criteria and do have signs and symptoms that suggest that you may have COVID-19, you will follow into a second level of testing which requires questions being asked
by a doctor and further checks. This will be followed by counseling and advice if a person needs to have a swab done. They are advised on the swabbing technique and what should be expected”.

Further, based on the patient’s symptoms he/she will be required to enter an institutional quarantine. She noted also while awaiting results, officials will begin contact tracing beginning with immediate family and other persons the patient may have been in contact with.
The test result may take 48 to 72 hours.

“Even before the test comes positive, once we have a suspected patient, we would already start contact tracing where we would try to get family of the household or individuals with whom they may have been in contact,” she said.

Five nurses and two doctors have been assigned to the facility.

The health officials in the region have been actively working to keep the number of cases down. A screening unit was also set up on the eastern section of the Berbice River Bridge, where persons entering the region are required to have their temperate checked.