— Min Anthony says, waiting on guidance from CARPHA

AMID news that the first case of the reportedly more transmissible strain of the virus COVID-19 has been recorded in the United States, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said that Guyana does not have the capability to define different strains of the virus and instead has to await guidance from CARPHA. In an exclusive interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Wednesday, the minister explained that this new strain — which was discovered in the United Kingdom and prompted travel bans from that country — was detected because some countries are able to identify those variants from genetic typing of samples. But Guyana, he lamented, does not have that capability. “It’s hard to identify the strain [and] to take action without the relevant evidence is a little bit difficult and that’s the challenge… We don’t have the capability of defining different strains of this virus,” he said.

Last week, during one of his COVID-19 updates with the Department of Public Information (DPI), Dr. Anthony said that Guyana was awaiting further scientific information to guide any decision, as advised by the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA). And on Wednesday, he told the Guyana Chronicle that no fixed information has come from CARPHA yet. Instead, that information will be made clearer on Monday (January 4) when chief medical officers of the Caribbean meet. He, however, noted that CARPHA has indicated that it can assist Guyana in identifying variants, but the agency will probably send those suspected samples to other labs, since CARPHA of itself does not have the capacity to test for the variants. The new variant (or strain) of the virus has been recorded in the UK, the U.S., Australia, Denmark, Italy, Iceland, and the Netherlands. If someone has been infected with COVID-19 before, they can become re-infected by contracting a different strain. There are currently 348 active cases in Guyana.