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Brazil COVID-19 variant in Guyana ‘news to us’ – Health Minister
Kaieteur News – Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony yesterday indicated that he is unaware that the P.1 variant of SARS CoV-2 that surfaced in Brazil last year is present in Guyana, despite the claim that it was here being made by a senior Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) official.
Just recently the PAHO Advisor on Emerging Viral Diseases, Dr. Jairo Mendez Rico had confirmed during a webinar for journalists that the Brazil variant (P.1) was present in the country. PAHO had disclosed that 37 countries and territories have confirmed the presence of one or more of the four variants of concern. The Advisor had announced that the B.1.1.7 has been confirmed in 34 countries, the B.1.351 in 17 countries, P.1 in 21 countries and the B.1.617 in eight countries.
Commenting on this new development, the Health Minister during his daily COVID-19 update yesterday said, “Well as I have said before, we don’t know what are the different type of variants or if there are any circulating in Guyana because from the limited amount of genetic sequencing that was done on ten samples, we were not able to identify any such variant like the P.1 or any one of the others. So this is really news to us.”
The Ministry, earlier in the year, had sent 10 COVID-19 test samples to the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to test for the new variant of COVID-19 because it requires genetic sequencing. This could not have been done locally because the country lacks the resources to do so. All 10 samples that returned were cleared, meaning that the new variant was not detected.
Anthony lamented that his Ministry has already communicated with the PAHO for a report on their findings and that they are still awaiting a response. When PAHO was contacted for a comment yesterday, this publication was referred to speak with the Ministry of Health. Efforts to make contact with the Health Ministry’s Public Relations Officer up to press time proved futile.
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