– close surveillance for surrounding communities, says Dr. Anthony

By Navendra Seoraj

CONTAINING the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the little Region One (Barima-Waini) village of Kwebanna has been successful due to the enforcement of several control measures, but in order to maintain a grip on the situation, the authorities will extend these measures for at least one more week.
Kwebanna had gone into lockdown for 14 days on October 24, after becoming a hotspot for COVID-19. The move to lockdown the community was seen as a last resort in order to stabilise the situation and save lives.
With a population of just over 900 people, it was imperative that the authorities act immediately to protect the residents, since infected cases in the community had numbered more than 50. Two persons had also died.
“As you know, we had a spike in Kwebanna, and the relevant measures to contain the spread were employed… We have medical teams on the ground, doing house-to-house sanitisation, educating households, and testing residents who are living there,” said Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony during Tuesday’s edition of the daily COVID-19 update.

Although these measures are “working”, Dr. Anthony said the authorities will continue to monitor the situation for at least another week.

Almost 300 persons have been tested so far, and while most of those persons have tested negative, the community has 62 active cases.

“We continue to monitor everyone, so if anyone deteriorates, we are able to identify them and take them for treatment,” Dr. Anthony said.

In addition to monitoring the situation in Kwebanna, the authorities have been conducting close surveillance in surrounding communities.

“We have seen a number of cases in surrounding communities, so we have started to take precautions… We have not closed those communities, but we took precautions; we are doing sanitisation and so on, but we will continue to be vigilant and provide guidance,” said Dr. Anthony.

Hinterland regions have been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 epidemic, with Regions One recording 720 cases; Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), 377 cases; Eight (Potaro-Siparuni), 138 cases; and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) with 376 cases, accounting for over 38 per cent of the total cases in Guyana.

It was reported recently that as part of efforts to improve and increase testing for COVID-19 in hinterland communities, local authorities have sourced 20,000 antigen tests, which will produce results within minutes.
And as it is now, testing for COVID-19 is done centrally at the National Reference Laboratory in Georgetown. Authorities would first have to acquire a sample from a person suspected to have COVID-19, and then send the sample to Georgetown, where medical professionals will conduct a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test, which takes hours to produce results.

“We have ordered the antigen tests. This is not the PCR test; it is done right at the site, once you suspect COVID-19… You run the test and get it back within 45 minutes,” said Dr. Anthony.

Each hinterland community is already equipped with fixed sites for testing, but Minister Anthony said in cases where there is a high infection rate in a particular community, a mobile team will be deployed to conduct testing and contact-tracing.