Prime Minister, Mark Phillips, today, held multiple meetings with key officials from agencies that fall under his portfolio. The meeting was held to receive updates on ongoing projects and to decide on strategies of forging forward steadfastly with their agenda.
The Prime Minister first met with officials to establish an interagency task force aimed at tackling the COVID-19 response in Regions 1, 7, 8 and 9.
Present at the meeting were Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony; Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn; members of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), and the Guyana Police Force (GPF); former Health Minister, Dr. Leslie Ramsammy; representatives from the Ministry of Natural Resources, including the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission, and other attendees.
The meeting was a pivotal occurrence, given the current situation of increasing COVID-19 cases in those regions. The Government’s priority is to sensitise citizens in those areas as to the measures that need to be taken to counter the spread of the disease while increasing testing and tracing, through medical interventions.
This initiative is ever more imperative given that these regions also share borders with Brazil, which has the second-largest number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, surpassing more than 100,000; and Venezuela, which currently has more than 25,000 deaths, and an ongoing refugee crisis.
The Prime Minister later held a familiarisation meeting with Telecommunications officials from various agencies whose duties will now fall under the Office of the Prime Minister.
Attendees at this meeting included General Manager of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), Mr Floyd Levi; Project Manager of the UNDP-funded ICT Access and eServices for Hinterland, Poor and Remote Communities Project, Mr. Phillip Walcott; Deputy General Manager of the NDMA, Mr Francis Simmons, and other officials from the Guyana Post Office, Telecommunications Agency, and the Industry and Innovation Unit, which came under the former Ministry of Public Telecommunications.
The Prime Minister will continue to host similar familiarisation and project-based meetings in the coming days, as he continues to undertake his mandate. [Extracted and Modified from DPI]
