Santa Rosa Teacher afraid to leave home after recovering from COVID-19

After teaching for 16 years, Rachel Abraham, a secondary school teacher in Santa Rosa, Moruca, Region One is not sure that she wants to return to work after she tested positive for COVID-19. Even though she has recovered, Abraham is concerned about leaving her home and remains traumatised. She along with her older sister tested positive, the sister also recovered.

Moruca is the new COVID-19 hotspot with more than 82 confirmed cases. 29 persons have since recovered and one person died. Over 20 teachers tested positive and Abraham is among the 11 teachers who have recovered so far.

During a telephone interview with the News Room Wednesday, Abraham could not say when or where she contracted the deadly disease, but she knew for certain that she never wants to experience it again. Abrahams teaches CSEC students at the Santa Rosa Secondary School.

“I have no idea where I could have gotten COVID-19 because my family placed ourselves in quarantine even before Moruca became a hotspot, however we had to make a few grocery runs for necessities and were called to duty in June so I could have picked it up at any of those times,” Abraham said.

She is now fearful of those in the community who do not believe the virus exists and are not adhering to the protocols.

“I am not sure if I want to go back to work cause it has had a traumatizing effect on many of us, if not all of us because we don’t know how we got it in the first instance and to go back out there with many people who are not testing, I don’t know if I want to go back into isolation,” Abraham said.

Abraham explained that she had contracted dengue before so when she started to experience muscle pain and tiredness she thought it was the dengue again. While in isolation she also experienced a slight sore throat.

In expressing tremendous thanks to her God Jehovah and the medical team that treated her in isolation, Abraham also highlighted the support from the Education Department, the Guyana Teacher’s Union, the Village Council, colleagues and friends. Abraham said she also drank a lot of fluids such as ginger, turmeric and lemon grass, used vitamins and exercise daily – all of which added to her recovery.

“I’ve really gotten a lot of support even though it is a traumatizing situation to be in I feel really loved and supported and all of that I would say added to our recovery.”

She is encouraging that more persons get tested and if they are positive, they can recover and this will enable the country return to some form of normalcy.

“My advice is that if you had contact with anyone who tested positive then it’s your moral obligation to see how you can get a test because everybody’s lives are important,” Abraham stated.

Some residents in Moruca do not believe the coronavirus exists and have been challenging the lockdown and curfew measures in place to prevent its spread.

As such, the Guyana Police Force recently deployed more ranks to Moruca and Aranka in Region Seven, which also confirmed a record number of cases, in order get persons to stay at home.

Santa Rosa is the most populated indigenous village in Guyana with approximately 12,000 residents. The community recorded its first case on May 25. Those who have tested positive include children, Police officers, health workers and teachers.