Sixty-seven new cases of coronavirus were recorded on Saturday and Sunday in Guyana, which brings to 328 the number of infected people in this territory of 300,000 inhabitants, authorities said.
“We are moving more and more towards stage 3 of the epidemic”, said Dr. Mirdad Kazanji, director of the Institut Pasteur in Cayenne, which performs the majority of screening tests in Guyana.
The number of people infected with the virus has increased by 128% over the last 14 days (144 cases identified on May 10).
Twenty-seven additional cases were recorded at Saint-Georges de l’Oyapock, on the border with Brazil, the country most affected in South America by the pandemic. A total of 119 cases are confirmed in this commune of 4,220 inhabitants, or more than 2.8% of its population.
Between Wednesday evening and Sunday evening, 22 cases were diagnosed in Camopi, an Amerindian commune in the Amazonian Park of Guyana, isolated on the river border of Brazil, with no road to the coast and plagued by the throes of illegal gold panning.
“Careful deconfinement”
The first three positive cases in this commune were a legionnaire from the 3rd REI (foreign infantry regiment) and two Native American boatmen working for the Legion. The requested military did not give details of the 19 additional cases.
Asked about deconfinement in Guyana, started on May 11 as in mainland, the prefect of this territory of South America Marc Del Grande estimated that “The careful deconfinement with maintenance of confinement in Saint-Georges, curfew in Guyana, strengthening of PCR tests, and reconfiguration of Camopi on May 15 corresponds well to the Guyanese situation”.
“The circulation of the virus in Brazil must encourage 100% of the population to respect barrier gestures, distancing and wearing a mask”, he insisted.
In the underprivileged and popular districts, the mask is rare. In the past two weeks, about 25 cases have been detected in Kourou, nearly 30 in 18 days on Cayenne Island.
In addition, state authorities will face Tuesday in the administrative court of Cayenne, a summary liberty brought by the League of the humans right which requests the suspension of the curfew on the territory.
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