Letter: Mass Testing Needs to be Conducted in Berbice

19th of August, 2020. Upper Corentyne, Berbice, Guyana, South America.

Dear Editor,

I’m from Berbice, and, as a concerned citizen, I need to draw the attention of the health officials to please conduct mass testing in Berbice, Region 6, Guyana.

We still have people traversing from Suriname to Guyana illegally and we have persons who are going about their daily business without any mask or COVID protocols, and it’s even scarier in my village, Number 63 and Number 65.

We have persons in the streets on their bicycles gathering at the street corners with no mask and when they pass in the street they cough and spit in front of people’s houses.

COVID is real and there are a lot of asymptomatic cases around that we have no idea about because testing wasn’t done. My neighbors are all over the place and they would be coughing all day–every one of them in the house.

There is a land space of two empty house lots in between us, but it’s still a concern. Please, we need mass testing. Many persons are afraid to go get medical help in my village. I heard that through the grapevine that they would rather be at home than go get tested and then they will have to be in a quarantine facility.

Please share this to let people know that COVID-19 is real and anyone can have it. Let them have a change in their mentality towards this virus in order for it to be contained. Please, I only go to get groceries every 5 weeks, and I wear mask all the time even if I’m in my yard at the front area because I’m scared because people are not doing what they are told to do by the health ministry.

Let us stop with the wrong mentality. We need mass testing on the lower part of the Corentyne area please.

Yours sincerely,

Concerned Resident of No. 63 Village, Corentyne, Guyana

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