No more than two flights per week for stranded Guyanese- Patterson

Two flights are likely to be allowed into Guyana every week to repatriate stranded Guyanese, according to Minister of Public Infrastructure David Patterson.

Patterson told reporters on Friday that flights have been confirmed from New York, Miami, Trinidad and Barbados.

He told the media that approximately two flights will be allowed per week as the number of persons registering with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs add up to enough passengers for a flight.

“We expect people to continue register and when we reach a certain critical mark, we will bring them in.

“So it’s a continuous process…” he said.

Person are required to pay for their flights.

“Persons have to pay so if the flight caters for 160 and there is only 60, they will have to share that cost,” Patterson said.

Flights will also be approved based on the availability of space at the Ministry of Public Health’s facilities for persons who request to be at those facilities.

“It is determined by the Ministry of Public Health’s capacity so I would assume it would be no more than one or two per week because obviously there is a limited amount of space even at the private quarantine facilities,” Patterson explained.

The passengers have to complete PCR COVID-19 test within 48 hours of arrival and once negative, will be allowed to board the flight.

The National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) recently agreed for persons returning to Guyana to be quarantined at home.

“For the avoidance of doubt, home quarantine means quarantining at their respective homes, not at a government facility. Persons will be required to remain at their homes for 7 days and not leave for any reason whatsoever other than to seek emergency medical attention,” said Imran Khan, the Secretary of the COVID-19 Task Force Tuesday.

The first flight was scheduled from the United States on Saturday with 160 persons but Patterson noted that some persons have been experiencing difficulties with submitting the results from the Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests.

“Most of the passengers were getting issues with the PCR tests they are required to [submit] to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, some were ineligible so we are trying to see if we can get the flight,” he noted.