Coronavirus: the worrying situation of Guyana

Text by: Marie Casadebaig Follow

The threat of a second wave of the Covid-19 epidemic seems to be disappearing in France. But two points darken the picture: Mayotte in the Indian Ocean and Guyana in South America where, unlike the rest of French territory, the virus remains very active.

Publicity

The situation is worrying to the point that the president of the local authority, Rodolphe Alexandre, officially asked Thursday Prime Minister Edouard Philippe to postpone the second round of the municipal elections in Guyana, which is to take place on June 28. Rodolphe Alexandre considers that it is incoherent to call the Guyanese to the polls, whereas the message in force on the territory is the limitation of displacements.

At the national level, the scientific council gave the green light for the holding of the second round on the 28th, but it underlines the high risks linked to the organization of the campaign in Mayotte and in Guyana. The council must therefore give a new opinion in two days.

Since deconfinement a month ago, the number of positive cases has increased six-fold, from 144 in mid-May to 917, in the last bulletin published on Thursday. Knowing that Guyana has only 300,000 inhabitants. A second death was recorded Monday by the Regional Health Agency, which warns of an upcoming influx of patients into hospitals. The ARS of Guyana emphasizes that the epidemic is not following the same rhythm as in mainland France.

Specific measures

When containment was initiated in mid-May, Guyana had not yet experienced a first wave. There were only ten cases in the territory. It followed the same measures as the other French regions without experiencing the same health situation. It is therefore today that he is facing an outbreak of cases.

The prefect of Guyana recently had to issue specific decrees; such as the reconfiguration of the 16 affected municipalities, from Saturday evening to Monday morning and the extension of the curfew every evening of the week. State services had already noted, even before the deconfinement, a relaxation of the vigilance of the Guyanese, like the organization of a party, almost a month ago, in a village on the Brazilian border, which has given rise to cases of contamination.
The geographic location of Guyana is one of the explanations for this Covid 19 outbreak.

The effect of the Brazilian epidemic

For the director of the Pasteur Institute in Cayenne, Guyana, the dynamics of the epidemic in Brazil has a definite impact on the multiplication of cases in Guyana. The two territories have 730 km of common borders. In Brazil, the coronavirus is wreaking havoc. More than 40,000 deaths have been reported. The border is now closed, but it is difficult to control. The illegal gold- mining activity attracts many foreign workers. These exchanges with Brazil but also Suriname, to the west, generally intensify in June. The Institut Pasteur finds each year that seasonal flu peaks during this period. He is concerned that the Covid-19 will follow the same dynamic.

Guyana's health authorities are preparing for a massive influx of patients into hospitals and city medical offices. The positive point is that the gap with France has allowed the territory to prepare and will allow it to benefit from human resources, the health reserve. Seventy people must arrive from mainland France. Respirators may also be available.

Local teams already in high demand

Negative point, the local healthcare teams are already very much in demand by another epidemic, that of dengue fever, which mobilizes in particular the resuscitation and biology services and the staff is already lacking wherever there is going to be strong needs.

Guyanese people, for example, have to wait more than a week before they can get tested. Local health authorities are even considering medical evacuation plans for non-Covid patients to the French West Indies. The idea is to do everything to prevent the health services of the territory from being overwhelmed, as were those of the metropolis.

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• Coronavirus
• Guyana
• France
• Health and Medicine