The Georgetown City Council has been forced to shut down operations at its maternal and child welfare clinics in Albouystown, Festival City, and along South Road after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19.

City Mayor Ubraj Narine told News Source today that the Ministry of Health has been contacted so that other staff members could be tested and contact tracing could be done.

He said the Ministry will also be asked to operate the centres while those staff members will be away from work under quarantine.

Mayor Narine said the sanitizing of all of the health clinics started today and will continue tomorrow. He said there were a several staff members who were in regular contact with the person who was tested positive and therefore it is very important for contact tracing to be done.

News Source understands that the staff member might have also interacted with members of the public who might have visited the clinics in the past few days.

The situation with the closure of the municipal clinics is creating an additional challenge for the City Council in its fight against COVID-19.

Earlier this week, the Council received reports that at least three vendors from the Stabroek Market area have tested positive for COVID-19. The markets have been sanitized on a number of occasions and there is a no mask, no entry policy in place.

However, the City Council has still found a number of vendors and shoppers flouting the guidelines. Several have already been charged and fined for not wearing their face masks at the market places.

The City Mayor said the further relaxing of the curfew measures is also creating another burden for the City as more persons are out at a later time and not following the guidelines. Two weeks ago, the Health Ministry announced that the curfew hours would be between the hours of 9:00pm to 5:00am.

The Mayor said he believes the change was misplaced and is possibly one of the contributing factors to the increase in new cases of coronavirus, especially in the city.

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