COVID-19: License revocation, lesser market days and hours in Berbice

The fish pond inside the Corriverton Market

By Royan Abrams

The Corriverton Mayor and Town Council has sent a strong warning to business establishments within its span of control that if they fail to comply with measures implemented by the council to reduce crowding and advance social distancing amidst the Coronavirus, they could see their business operating licenses being revoked.

Corriverton Mayor Winston Roberts

“We also educate them and tell them that they should not have more than ten people at one time in any business place bar, salon, restaurant everywhere not more than ten, we even tell them that even if they have more than 15 to 20 customers you let in ten … take in three or four at a time and let them place their order and get outside and let the waitress tell them when their stuff ready” Mayor Winston Roberts of Corriverton in Region 6 stated recently.

In Linden, the Mayor and Town Council of Region 10 has implemented a mandatory curfew where persons are to get off the streets by 18:00hrs and for a period of twelve hours. Exceptions were given to health care workers, police officers and those who operate essential businesses such as pharmacies, that arrangement took effect from last evening.

Up in the East at Corriverton, the CMTC visited business places and informed operators of the systems which were being put in place and also cautioned them on the importance of social distancing in an effort to protect themselves and customers.

Mayor Roberts was also clear that the business should seek to install handwashing stations to the façade of their business as part of the process of fighting the virus, failure to do these things he stated could see them being asked to close their operations completely.

As it relates to the marketplace, the council has also implemented a number of measures to address crowd control. The council has also reduced the opening hours of the market to half-day on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays with the exception of Saturday where it will function as per normal.

“What you will find is that on Mondays Tuesdays Thursdays and Fridays when we close at 12 we sanitize the market we spray and Wednesday and Sunday we spray the whole day so those are the measures we have at the market we close two days a feel and half-day the other days” he stated.

However on Wednesdays and Sundays, the market will be shut down completely for fumigation, the municipal official stated.

Several sanitation stations have been installed so that persons entering the facility washed or sanitized their hands and the hours of business

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Public Health has been calling on citizens to practice social distancing but in several parts of the country, this is not being done as bars are operating as per normal, restaurant cooking and serving as per normal and there continue to be large gatherings of persons at funerals and on street corners.

On Saturday Guyana recorded three new Coronavirus cases, where the affected hail from the East bank of Demerara, they are however not related and or connected to the initial four cases which tested positive from the East Coast Demerara.