Home isolation contributing to increase in COVID-19 cases- Volda Lawrence

Sep 29, 2020 News

By Sueann Wickham

Former Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, is of the firm belief that persons with COVID-19 being isolated within their homes are a major contributing factor to the surge in cases. This was stated by the former Minister in a telephone interview with Kaieteur News yesterday.

Former Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence

Lawrence explained that many of the persons in home isolation live in homes that are not conducive to the standard requirements needed for home isolation. “Most of them don’t have self-contained rooms and other things so they are forced to interact with their household,” Lawrence said. She highlighted that adherence to social distancing guidelines is somewhat of a challenge in Guyana presently, as many persons would still visit those in isolation.
She emphasized the need for these persons in home isolation to be kept in institutional isolation, as it can decrease the amount of contact they would have with other people and thus curb further spread of the virus.
Lawrence named a few facilities like the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, the West Demerara Regional Hospital that can be used for isolation of COVID-19 patients and quarantining those who would have had the closest contact with these patients.
“We have a situation where when persons test positive for the virus, the persons they came in closest contact with would have already come into contact with other people. If the persons that had the closest contact are kept in quarantine, by the time they get their results, they would have avoided spreading it to other people,” the former Minister advised.
The Minister had previously shared the same sentiments in an interview on Capitol News, where she said, “It is my belief that having 500 and something persons who are at home – on home isolation are adding to the numbers and surges that we see in the COVID-19 cases in Guyana.”
During the interview, she also responded to claims of her administration building a COVID-19 hospital that was referred to as a “shell” by the current Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony. Lawrence stated that the hospital was constructed using money from an emergency fund. She added that the Hospital was built with the intent of housing COVID-19 patients and quarantining those who might be at risk. Now that the new administration has taken over, Lawrence called for them to “get on with it”, referring to housing more patients and quarantining persons awaiting their results.
Lawrence stated that her administration was notified about the pandemic by the Pan American Health Organization/ World Health Organization (PAHO/WHO) in January before it came to Guyana. She noted that her Ministry had put together a team of the necessary personnel to combat the virus if people did get infected. This team comprised of personnel with disease control background, epidemiologists, and others.

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