Regional Hospitals now handling COVID-19 patients

ALL REGIONAL HOSPITALS IN GUYANA ARE EQUIPPED TO MANAGE COVID-19
PATIENTS said Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony.
“In Region One (Barima/Waini), we have a section of the Mabaruma Hospital that can
accommodate Covid patients. We also have at Port Kaituma, a section of that hospital that is
dedicated to Covid-19 patients. That’s where over the last several months, we have been
isolating Covid-19 patients,” Minister Anthony said.
“We also have sections of the Kumaka hospital in Region One where we can do that type of
Hospitalisation adding ventilators and oxygen supplies,” he continued.
“We have extended the Covid isolation center for West Demerara Regional Hospital because as
you see currently, we have a number of cases in Region Three (Essequibo Islands/West
Demerara), and we want to make sure we have the right capacity to take care of those
patients,” the health minister explained.
The West Demerara Regional Hospital can now accommodate 50 Covid patients, and with its
proximity to Region Four (Demerara/Mahaica), critical patients are easily transported to the
Infectious Diseases Hospital.
The health minister noted that the Infectious Diseases Hospital at Liliendaal, Region Four
remains the central facility to house coronavirus infected persons who require hospitalisation,
and has an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with the capacity to house 59 persons.
He pointed out in Region Five (Mahaica/Berbice), works are ongoing at the Mahaicony Cottage
Hospital to create an ICU space, while at the Experiment Health Centre, one of the buildings has
been repurposed to cater solely for Covid-19 patients.

Dr. Anthony said similarly at the Bartica Hospitals in Regin Seven, (Cuyuni/Mazaruni); in
Mahdia, Region Eight (Potaro/Siparuni); and the Linden Hospital Complex in Regin Ten (Upper

Demerara/Berbice), capacity has been built to cater for Covid patients. Only recently, the
government commissioned a six-bed ICU at the Lethem Hospital in Upper Takutu/Upper
Essequibo (Regin Nine).
The ministry’s vaccination campaign is also gaining momentum, leading to increases in
inoculation of staff and a drop in the spread of the deadly virus at workplaces, Minister Anthony
said.
“If the workplace is adhering to the Covid-19 measures, which means that people would
have to keep social distance, sanitise their hands, wear their masks, then you will have a
reduction in cases if they are fully vaccinated. So, if people observe these requirements,
then the cases will be far less,” Minister Anthony added.