Deep worry at Brazilian border… More than 30 Region 9 residents in home quarantine

May 21, 2020 News

– Marudi mining poses major challenges

Region Nine, which borders with Brazil, is facing major challenges with its COVID-19 pandemic fight.

Tough situation: Region 9 chairman, Bryan Allicock

More than 30 persons from Guyana’s biggest region have been ordered to take mandatory home isolation with the authorities scrambling to increase monitoring of the border.
The country’s biggest region recently recorded its first case of the virus after an itinerant vendor fell sick. He managed to escape the Lethem facilities but was apprehended by authorities in Brazil.
Investigations found that the vendor crossed from Region 8 at Region 9 and would have engaged persons in several villages.
Speaking yesterday on Kaieteur Radio on ‘Election/COVID-19 Watch’, Region 9 chairman, Bryan Allicock, acknowledged that the challenges are enormous.
Region 9 consists of 57 villages. It was disclosed that the vendor would have gone to several villages in the Rupununi. Authorities were only able to track down a few of the persons.
According to the chairman, back-tracking the movements of the region’s ‘Patient Zero’ is not easy with the distances and reluctance from persons major challenges.
Monitoring the persons in home isolation is also proving a difficulty with doctors and nurses assigned.
While tracking of persons who may have come into contact with the vendor has been completed in the North Rupununi, the investigations are continuing in the South.
Allicock was this week appointed the chairman of the Region 9 Task Force.
The region is currently preparing its malaria centre as a holding area for COVID-19 patients.
Lethem is currently allowing goods and other essential supplies from Brazil but these are being sanitized by health officials before being allowed in.
Goods from the coastlands are also being allowed but there are checkpoints with screening along the Linden/Lethem trail/
According to Allicock, the region is now bracing for more problems…the rains are threatening with Konashen experiencing rising waters in the Savannahs.
The official, who disclosed that Region 9 has about 27,000 residents scattered in the Lethem township and the villages, admitted that a few military personnel and police would not be enough to monitor the over 1000 miles of open border with Brazil.
There are now moves to activate Community Policing Groups in the villages to increase the watchfulness.
He said that it is reported that the Brazilian miners have been proving a major headache with illegal crossings.
One of the problems is that persons are even equipped with satellite phones which helps to evade patrols from the Guyana side..
The situation of Brazilian and other miners have placed indigenous people’s villages in a vulnerable situation despite gates being erected to restrict movements, the Regional Chairman said.
France 24 reported yesterday that Brazil’s daily death toll from the new coronavirus jumped to a record 1,179 on Tuesday as President Jair Bolsonaro doubled down on chloroquine as a possible remedy and US leader Donald Trump said he was considering a travel ban from Brazil.
Brazil overtook Britain on Monday to become the country with the third-highest number of confirmed infections, behind Russia and the United States.
Brazil’s confirmed cases also jumped by a record 17,408 on Tuesday, for a total of 271,628 people who have tested positive for the virus.
Bolsonaro, an ideological ally of Trump, has been criticised for his handling of the outbreak, such as opposition to restrictions on movement he sees as too damaging to the economy.
Thousands of Brazilians live and work in Guyana.
Guyana has closed its borders and airports since March to limit the spread of the virus. The number of cases continues to rise, to now over 100 with the death toll at 10.