Reporting the facts. Keeping you informed.
The Guyana Fire Service and the Guyana Police are probing the arson of a Library located at the Bush Lot Community Center, West Coast Berbice.
Fire Chief Marlon Gentle said initial reports from his investigators on the ground revealed that the building was deliberately set on fire. According to Gentle, the fire was set around 4:45 Tuesday morning.
Gentle said investigators were on the scene this morning checking all leads to crack the case.
So far no one has been arrested.
At the close of Monday, the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) saw the recount of 56 ballot boxes, bringing the total number of boxes counted over the six days to 264.
Today saw 15 ballots counted for Region One, 11 for Region Two, 15 for Region Three and 12 for Region Four.
With the tabulation process commencing an hour earlier, some 247 Statements of Recount (SOR) were tabulated for the General Elections and 235 for the Regional.
As the national recount of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional elections continue, the commission is also reporting a smooth process, with some minor challenges today.
GECOM’s Public Relations Officer (PRO) Yolanda Ward said the commission looks forward to the days improving and an increase in the pace of the counting process.
Earlier today, the PRO reported that the commission met with representatives from some of the smaller parties who had requested a meeting to discuss some matters they wish addressed.
“Some of the issues they raised related to the flow of information. That is the information was not being communicated to all the workstations and the same kind of information.”
Ward said the parties requested that the commission design a methodology to ensure the same information is filtered down to all the staff members at the respective work stations so everyone will be guided accordingly and will be in compliance with those decisions.
Another issue raised was the duration of the process. The PRO noted that the commission is scheduled to meet to tomorrow review the 25-day timeline when a decision will be made whether to accelerate the process to meet the timeline or extend the period.
She also corrected an earlier statement she made stating that the declaration for each district will be made on the completion of that district.
Ward referred to the National Recount Order which showed that it is the Chief Elections Officer that will compile a report of all districts before making that submission to the commission or its consideration.
Nineteen ballot boxes were completed at 13:00 hours today – day six of the recount of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
These include five from Region One; two from Region Two; six from Region Three and 5 from Region Four.
The Guyana Elections Office (GECOM), Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward in her mid-afternoon update noted that the process was moving smoothly thus far.
“We had an uneventful morning; we have had a very smooth process. As the days progress the issues, we have come from the work stations have been reduced significantly with the clarifications are being provided by the commission,” Ward explained.
Nevertheless, she highlighted that the commission held a meeting with representatives from some of the smaller parties who had requested a meeting to discuss some matters they wish addressed.
“Some of the issues they raised related to the flow of information. That is the information was not being communicated to all the workstations and the same kind of information.”
Ward said the parties requested that the commission design a methodology to ensure the same information is filtered down to all the staff member at the respective work stations so everyone will be guided accordingly and will be in compliance with those decisions.
Another issue raised was the duration of the process. The PRO noted that the commission is scheduled to meet to tomorrow review the 25-day timeline when a decision will be made whether to accelerate the process to meet the timeline or extend the period.
Ward announced that at the end of the tabulation exercise of each region, a declaration will be prepared and the results will replace the existing one. These tabulations will be the final results of the March 02, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
As of yesterday, 208 ballot boxes were completed. The tabulation of some 190 Statements of Recount (SOR) for the General Elections and 180 for Regional was also completed.
She was rushed to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
Seven more persons have recovered from COVID-19 which, since March 11, has been confirmed to have infected 93 Guyanese locally.
Of these 93 cases, 49 are active cases with Guyana having recorded 10 deaths and 34 recoveries. The most recent death occurred on May 5.
This was disclosed by Chief Medical Officer Dr. Shampoo Persaud today.
So far, a total of 736 persons have been tested with 643 of those tested returning negative.
Six persons are in institutional quarantine while the 49 others remain in isolation at various facilities across Guyana. Three persons are housed in the COVID-19 ICU at GPHC.
Although Guyana has gone two days without any new confirmed infections, Dr. Shamdeo Persaud warned of persons who may be asymptomatic, meaning persons who may have the virus but not be showing any symptoms.
“From information provided globally, many healthy younger persons infected with COVID-19 do not display the usual symptoms. These persons can continue to transmit the virus to other vulnerable persons in our society by not practicing control measures such as hand hygiene, physical distancing and the using of masks,” he said.
Globally, according to WHO’s report dated 6 May, 2020 there are 3,588, 773 confirmed cases with 247, 503 deaths. In the Region of the Americas there are 1,507, 148 confirmed cases with 81, 070 deaths, an increase of 1,480 deaths in the last 24 hours.
The Ministry of Public Health is again calling on all citizens to heed the health advisories and observe the correct hygiene measures and precautions. Citizens are also asked to always practice social distancing in the workplace, public spaces, and while using public transportation so as reduce the spread of the coronavirus diseases.
22 persons were today placed on station bail at the Springlands Magistrates’ Court for breaching the curfew that was implemented by the Ministry of Public Health, in light of the Novel Coronavirus to curtail the spread of the disease.
Among those 22 persons, 7 are Venezuelan Nationals who reside at the Mahogany hotel, located at #78 Village, Corentyne Berbice.
This newscast understands that they were all Imbibing at the said hotel on Tuesday night last, as they were celebrating one of the Venezuelan girls birth night; a number of Guyanese were also at the party which drew much of the public’s attention, thus causing the police to crash the party and arrest them for Breach of Restriction on social Activities and Breach of Restriction of being at home.
However, they were expected to appear before a Magistrate sitting at the Springlands Magistrates’ Court on Thursday morning but that proceeding was put off; as a result they were granted bail of $10,000 each until their court appearance.
Nikol Rodriguez, Buonetina Henriques Sarai, Teledo Mendoza Maria De Jesus, Brehapat Rashaw Joshua, Mapta Guzman Poola Yanireth, Moita Guzman Yamileth and Zorrill Carolina are the Venezuelan nationals charged along with the hotel owners, Sherwin Peterson and Carlos Angel.
O’Neil Lewis, Richard Jeffrey, Kevin Rambaran, Arjan Jagdeo, Romaine Simmonols, Savita Maniram, Lennox Renaldo, Calvin Douglas, Abdul Haniff, Bentley Small, Tameshwar Basdeo, Vickash Singh and Mario Dave are the 13 other Guyanese that were charged following the violation of the law.
Persons are asked to abide by the law and adhere to the National curfew which was re implemented to help ease the spread of the viral disease, COVID-19. Those who fail to adhere to the restrictions on social gatherings and other social events will have to face the law if caught by the police, further actions by the lawmen may lead to the prosecution of those persons.
After Guyana confirmed its 23rd case of the novel Coronavirus, a curfew which mandates persons to be at home between 6PM to 6AM was implemented to help limit the number of confirmed cases.
However, persons continue to ignore the guidelines set out by the Ministry of Public Health and host various events and parties with large gatherings failing to adhere to the social distancing guidelines, but the Guyana Police Force have been working together with the various authorities in ensuring persons who disobey the law face the penalty.
As of May 07th, the total number of confirmed cases in Guyana remains at 93 with 34 recoveries.
A total of twenty-five (25) ballot boxes were counted during day one of the national recount process of the March 2, 2020, General and Regional Elections.
Seven boxes for Region 1; Region 2, six, Region 3, seven and Region 4, five boxes.
This was confirmed by the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM), Public Relations Officer (PRO), Yolanda Ward this evening during a media briefing after the day’s activity at Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC), Liliendaal.
“I anticipate that tomorrow we will be able to pick up some speed in this regard,” Ward said.
She explained that some challenges delayed today’s process. These included several administrative issues and some raised by parties that saw the commission meeting briefly to make decisions regarding those matters.
In particular, there was an issue relating to the absence of polling books, specifically in Region 1. The poll books provide the notes of the Presiding Officers as to what transpired during the electoral process on Election Day.
Ward disclosed that GECOM has since arranged to have those poll books transported to Georgetown from Region 1 tomorrow or as early as Friday.
“The information I received is that one of those poll books might be missing from the total…what we had was a situation where party agents were objecting to the absence of those poll books as part of their reconciliation process…so the commission was able to make a decision on that.”
As it relates to allegations that dead persons or those who would have migrated having voted, Ward explained the commission has a list they are working with from the Claims and Objection exercise.
“A name is on a list, for GECOM, we do not know who is dead or alive because there was no objection and even if there was an objection there has to be adequate proof that person is dead for us to remove that person…so the name on a list GECOM has no control over that particular issue.”
However, she noted that the system at Polling Stations should not prevent this from occurring because it is a scrutinised process. Party agents are present and therefore, once a person goes through the process to vote, these issues should not arise.
Ward confirmed that the issue was highlighted by one particular party and, “it is something that the commission has to deliberate on and provide some guidance.”
The PRO pointed out that another issue was the counting of the boxes in its sequential order.
This morning, the commission’s decision to begin with South Georgetown for the counting of Region Four ballots was objected to by party agents. It was then decided that the count will start from the East Bank on Thursday.
Importantly the issue was raised regarding persons in the room circulating videos on social media as to what was taking place at the work stations.
Ward explained this was not permitted by the commissioners and these persons were warned against such acts.
Going forward, she said persons will be escorted out of the station if they are found engaging in such practices.
The process will continue at 08:00 hours on Thursday morning.
The mining town of Linden is now battling with nine cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), six of which were recorded among the recent cases.
This is was disclosed by the Region Ten Regional Health and Emergency Committee (RHEC).
It was discovered that five out of the six persons are from one family, and two of these are children, ages 12 and one.
The patriarch of the family was the third positive case in the town and those now testing positive are his wife, daughter, niece and two close family members.
Three of them have already been transferred to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, while two remain home for further instructions.
The Committee also revealed that the sixth case is a woman with no ties to the family.
Additionally, two other residents, who are suspected to have contracted the disease, are awaiting results, one of whom is another child.
In light of these developments, Regional Executive Officer Orrin Gordon has emphasised the need for parents to be more vigilant with their children.
“It hurts me to know that we have two children among those infected since before this we had not reported any infections among children. I hope that parents and guardians would recognise that children are not exempt from contracting this deadly virus. Therefore, they must take the required actions and precautions to safeguard children during this time,” he said.
Gordon also called on the wider populace of the town to be more responsible and to take social distancing, enforcement of the curfew and individual and environmental sanitisation more seriously.
“People must understand that COVID-19 is deadly and residents within this region must act responsibly otherwise they continue to put themselves and every other person at risk,” Gordon warned.
“We had registered just one case and remained this way long after other regions had announced theirs. But now within a short space, we have jumped to eight persons,” he added.
Commander of Region 10, Hugh Winter said ranks are already enforcing the emergency measures including the national curfew and will continue to do so in a more robust manner, given the recent rise in cases.
Ranks are on 24-hour patrol ensuring that residents are adhering to the regulations and have had to make several arrests of persons breaching the curfew thus far.
Meanwhile, the Municipality of Linden which has responsibility for ensuring none-essential businesses and the market arena are not occupied by loiterers will also ramp up its monitoring its municipal constables.
The total number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 now stand at 93.
Law enforcement officials have launched a search for eight juveniles who escaped the Sophia holding facility sometime at approximately 23:00 yesterday.
The eight were among a group of twelve who escaped. Four were recaptured sometime after the daring escape, but eight managed to elude the lawmen.
The juveniles according to reports managed to overpower the officers on duty to make good their escape.
Six of the eight are being held on suspicion of murder, one for wounding and the other for break and enter and larceny.
Children between the ages of 14 and 17 years old are held at the facility once they have been charged with a criminal offence. Once they attain the age of 18 they are transferred to the formal prison system.
