Paris (AFP)

"The situation in Guyana is extremely worrying," government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye said on Wednesday after the Council of Ministers, referring to "a significant difficulty" in this territory faced with an epidemic of Covid-19 which s 'worsen.

On Wednesday, the regional health agency (ARS) recorded 2,827 confirmed cases (+234 cases in 24 hours), 9 deaths (+1), 102 hospitalizations and 15 patients in intensive care.

In Guyana, "we have grouped cases, with community dissemination, in other words, where tracing the chains of contamination is no longer possible," explained Sibeth Ndiaye, assuring that the State was "alongside the Guyanese, so as to respond to this important difficulty which we do not ignore. "

Given the situation, the second round of municipal elections, scheduled for June 28, was canceled by a decree of the Minister of the Interior, but no new date has yet been "defined", said the door. - word. "It will be done in conjunction with local authorities," she said.

The Minister of Overseas Annick Girardin, traveling since Tuesday in this territory of 300,000 inhabitants maintained under a state of health emergency, for his part launched Wednesday morning on RTL a call for additional reinforcements on the spot to face the epidemic.

"Here in Guyana, we need help, health personnel, nurses, resuscitators, doctors. This is a call I want to make, we need this additional resource. We have the number of beds, we have the respirators, we have all the equipment, but we lack arms, "said Annick Girardin.

"We double the number of cases every week, explained Annick Girardin. We were at 500 cases two weeks ago."

While the government said on Sunday that the question of a reconfiguration of the territory was on the table, Annick Girardin clarified that the debate arose between "a general reconfiguration and a targeted reconfiguration".

She recalled having installed Tuesday in Cayenne "an enlarged crisis management committee, with elected officials, citizens, scientists, associations and the great customary council, to make a shared decision".

But "it must be remembered that targeted reconfigurations are already practiced in Guyana (Saint-Georges de L'Oyapock, Camopi and a city of Remire-Montjoly) that there is a curfew, roadside checks, the situation is already under control and the restrictions are already very, very strong, "she said.

On Wednesday, two new medical evacuations of patients took place, this time to Guadeloupe, announced the prefecture. Four have already taken place in Martinique.

The minister went to Saint-Laurent-du-Maroni on Wednesday, where she notably met with elected officials, and was to make a final speech in the evening in Cayenne.

She also agreed to meet a group of Guyanese (including some members of the collective who had blocked Guyana in 2017), who arrested her, during a tense exchange Wednesday morning. "You think we are afraid of you. The Guyanese will take care of you, even if you shoot us," one of them yelled at the minister, stressing that in 2017, they had "done bend the state. "

© 2020 AFP