Minister of Public Affairs within the Office of the Prime Minister, Hon. Kwame McCoy and Minister within the Ministry of Housing and Water, Hon. Susan Rodrigues on Sunday conducted a COVID-19 awareness walkabout at La Penitence Market.

The Ministers and their teams fanned out from the Toolsie Persaud parking lot to distribute masks, T-shirts with the advisory slogans ‘COVID-19 Kills-Stay Alive’ and ‘Wear your mask, wash your hands and keep your distance’ to vendors, shoppers and others.

Operation COVI-CURB stickers with the slogan, “No mask, No ride”, were given to drivers and minibus operators traversing the area.  

This activity follows closely on the heels of a similar exercise held yesterday at the Stabroek, Skeldon, Leonora and Kitty markets. The initiative is another activity to complement the Joint Services-driven Operation COVI-CURB.  

On Friday, Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony told DPI the Ministerial outreach at markets is part of a plan to reach unserved groups.

“We are hoping to cover a substantial part of the country, especially the market areas, community gathering spots where we can talk to people, explain to them the importance of doing the prevention measures and hopefully that would get people to start taking on these preventative measures more,” Minster Anthony said.

Prime Minister Brigadier (ret’d) Mark Phillips launched Operation COVI-CURB on Thursday, October 1 to reinforce the COVID-19 safety measures. Since then, personnel from the Joint Services, together with volunteers have fanned out across the country, to distribute masks and to educate the public about the importance of adhering to the precautionary measures.

The activity has been held in Timehri, East Bank Demerara, New Amsterdam and Corentyne, East Berbice-Corentyne (Region Six), Linden, Upper Demerara-Berbice (Region Ten) and in the city.

On Saturday, October 3, a hotline was set up for persons to call and report breaches of the COVID-19 measures.

In addition, on Wednesday, October 7, Minister McCoy, in collaboration with the Guyana National Road Safety Council debuted the “No Mask, No Ride” campaign for public transportation.

The Government, the Ministry of Health, PAHO/WHO and other agencies continue to encourage the public to adhere to the guidelines to curb the spread of the disease.