Lethem, Region 9, Guyana, South America.
Many residents of Lethem are of the opinion that the man who crossed over from Bonfim to Lethem on the night of May 8th, 2020, and was later diagnosed with coronavirus, had come over on purpose with the intent of spreading coronavirus to Lethem.
The man, Mr. Hamlet Da Silva, is a resident of Bonfim who also has an address in St. Ignatius – the Amerindian Reserve Settlement which borders Lethem. Today, 12th of May, Mr. Carl Parker, CEO of Region 9, explained that it is important to disclose his name in the interest of public safety and to assist in contact tracing.
Apparently, when Mr. Da Silva was taken to the Lethem Regional Hospital that night, he was in a collapsed state. He told the doctors that he was from St. Ignatius and that he had malaria. As a result, he was initially treated as a malaria case but was shortly after isolated as a suspected coronavirus case. It was also later discovered that he did not come from his home in St. Ignatius, but from neighboring Bonfim, Brazil through an illegal backtrack crossing that passes through St. Ignatius.
This morning, 12th of May, a day after testing positive for coronavirus in Lethem, he escaped the isolation facility but was nabbed in Bonfim by the federal police and is being kept in an isolation facility in Bonfim presently. Some sources say that, at the time when he crossed over to Lethem, he was awaiting coronavirus test results from Boa Vista.
Many residents view these combined actions as a deliberate intent to spread the coronavirus to the people of Lethem. However, a few have argued that he was simply scared. Regardless of what the case or intention was, such actions can be classified as selfish, careless and irresponsible.
