—officials working assiduously to keep lid on situation

THERE were up to Friday no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Region 5 (Mahaica/Berbice) and officials of the Regional Emergency Operations Centre (REOC) at Fort Wellington are working assiduously to keep it that way.

Regional Health Officer, Dr Desmond Nicholson, disclosed that the quarantine measures and partial lockdowns are working effectively so that means that if a case is encountered, his team can move very aggressively; look for any infected person ; look for his/her contacts and ensure that quarantine is carried out since even then the Region will still be in a stage of containment.
He said: “In any event, we are hoping that it pans out that way.”
He added: “What we don’t want is a situation where if we do get a case we find that there are five or six satellite areas within the Region. If that

happens then we would not be able to keep it in containment anymore; it will have to be mitigation because there will be too many active sites and too many clusters for us to control.”

He said: “I am happy about the success of Region 5 to date. We continue to follow the guidelines; we are maintaining the systems that have been put in place and we hope that the creator is with us even as we continue to put our best foot forward”, he said.
Deputy Head of the REOC, Dr Alanna James, said that the centre continued to screen persons at health centres, at hospitals and checkpoints placed at strategic spots in the Region and to do follow up work necessary at the REOC.

She also commended Government agencies which have been assisting the work of the REOC to date.
These include the Guyana Power and Light (GPL), the Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), the MMA/ADA and the Guyana Police Force.
GPL, GWI and the MMA/ADA have instituted screening for visitors and have been given a protocol to report on any cases of elevated temperature encountered during such screening of visitors to their offices. The Police have also been playing their part in ensuring compliance with the curfew and restrictions demanded by the COVID-19 Regulations.

Scores of persons have been charged and placed before the Court and have either been fined or ordered to do community service as a penalty. Deputy Police Regional Commander, Jeremaine Dufu, disclosed that the members of the Force had been recently targeting business owners who encourage customers to congregate and lime in the vicinity of their businesses.
He said that the intention was that this would encourage these business people to be more proactive in discouraging persons from breaching social distancing rules in the vicinity of their premises.

The Police were actively monitoring the beaches where persons have tended to congregate and have also decided, as at earlier this week, to grant motorists a grace period of up to 20:00 hrs and then to close the public highway after that time until 06:00 hrs. The Deputy Regional Commander told the REOC that he was pleased with the situation where there have been no confirmed cases in Region 5 to date and assured that the Police will continue to work hard, with the available resources, to maintain that status quo. Thursday, the National COVID-19 Task Force disclosed that the 20:00 hrs to 06:00 hrs curfew shall no longer apply to Region Five from Monday to Friday, but will be in effect on Saturdays and Sundays. A similar relief was granted to Region 6 (East Berbice /Corentyne). Every other region will have to abide by the curfew from 20:00 hrs to 06:00 hrs every day.