Guyanese Online

The PPP/C government this afternoon confirmed that the two international airports will reopen to commercial flights on October 12th.

“The (Guyana Civil Aviation Authority) GCAA, CJIA, the Ministry of Health and the COVID-19 Task Force, along with us are engaged in discussions with all of the necessary stakeholders. Since the last directives were issued by GCAA, we are now aware that in country, we have capacity for testing on arrival. Those kind of finer details are being fine-tuned along with the airlines’ readiness to recommence scheduled commercial flights. As soon as those are completed, a date for the reopening for scheduled commercial flights will be announced,”

The CJIA, sources say, has already identified space which can be designated for the establishment of a sanitized testing area for arriving passengers.

Edghill confirmed that plans are on stream and said that the mechanism for payment for the tests is being worked out.

And while Eureka labs has said that its testing results will be available “in a matter of hours”, discussions are ongoing to determine the waiting process for passengers tested.

“We have to determine what happens to the passengers after they are tested. Will they be placed in an isolation waiting room for three or four hours? How will they get meals? What can be done to make them comfortable? A lot of what encompasses the process is being worked out,” one source said.

However, he stated that government was “aggressively” working to recommence commercial flight operations at Guyana’s two international airports in the shortest possible time, while assuring that measures in place to do so safely would be continuously evaluated as public health remains paramount.

He had noted that several air operators, including Eastern Airlines, Caribbean Airlines, Trans Guyana Airways, Roraima Airways and ExxonMobil flights, are permitted to operate special authorised and repatriation flights to process passengers desirous of coming to Guyana, once they satisfy the necessary health, safety and aviation regulatory requirements.

He mentioned that engagement with regional and international  carriers were then  ongoing and added that the government is committed to working with all stakeholders and private sector bodies to reopen the economy to improve the livelihood, inclusive of employment opportunities for our citizens.

Edghill said today that the GCAA will announce the continuation of current measures and when the new measures are decided on, the aviation agency will also issue them. There is possibility that the wait might not be two weeks as if government is satisfied of agreements reached before, an announcement will be made then.

‘Under my instructions, the GCAA will issue new directives for another two weeks, which will continue to facilitate a policy of flights being cleared for arrival and departure under the current guidelines. Which means the guidelines are extended until October 15th. If we can tie up discussions before the 15th October, those will be removed and the new guidelines issued,” he said.

UPDATE ON COVID-19

The Ministry of Health (MOH) this evening said that as of  5 pm today (30 September 2020), two persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died. This takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 82. The death  toll on August 1 was 21, therefore 61 persons have died from COVID 19 over the last 61 days, which is an average of one person per day.