Charter flight arrive from Barbados with 17, taken to quarantine facility

Mar 26, 2020 News

Some 17 Guyanese, including three children and one elder were late yesterday abruptly accosted by police officers at the ogle Airport, after arriving from Barbados on a Trans Guyana flight chartered by one of them.

The Madewini Campsite facilities where Guyanese who arrived from Barbados and Suriname are being kept

As the passengers exited the airport, they were met by persons wearing hazmat (hazardous material) suits and were beckoned to board a 48-seater bus. The passengers were given the impression that they were being taken only to be screened for Coronavirus, but they later learnt that they were being taken to endure 14 days of quarantine.
Even if they test positive, they will be kept quarantined for the entire period. Kaieteur News understands that there were at least two doctors on site last night.
When persons asked where they were being taken, they were reportedly told that that was a secret. Kaieteur News later learnt from a parent who followed the bus that the persons were taken to the Madewini Campsite on the Soesdyke-Linden Highway.
One Ministry of Public Health staffer told them that he has operational management of the facility. It is manned by military officers.
Kaieteur News was told that the persons were taken to dorms segregated by gender. Each dorm consists of enough double-bunk beds to house all of them. The passengers are concerned about the conditions they are expected to live under, as they say it is unsanitary. They worry that, as they are kept in cramped quarters, they will all eventually get infected, even if only one person was, at first.
There are reportedly few bathrooms and toilet facilities, and insufficient ventilation. They were told that the facilities they were placed in were all that were at the disposal of the team at this time.
Kaieteur News understands that there were already about four persons at the site when the group got there, quarantined after arriving from Suriname.
Up to press time last night, some persons reportedly refused to sleep in the facilities because they found them unacceptable.