Parliamentary sittings will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre due to COVID-19

Last Updated on Tuesday, 25 August 2020, 10:46 by Denis Chabrol

Parliamentary sittings will be held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) to ensure there is sufficient distance among parliamentarians and other persons  as part of the COVID-19 fight.

Clerk of the National Assembly, Sherlock Isaacs says no date has been fixed for the convening of Parliament for the first time after the March 2, 2020 general and regional elections.

The National Assembly has not had a sitting since May, 2019.

Mr. Isaacs says the Parliament Office will be renting the Arthur Chung Conference Centre to hold sittings of the National Assembly.

Parliamentarians are expected to be seated at least two seats a part in keeping with the need for social distancing to minimise the spread of the coronavirus, COVID-19.

The Clerk of the National Assembly said he was working closely with the Ministry of Health and the Guyana Defence Force in preparation for the new Parliament. “We observing everything they tell us to do…We are observing social distancing and everything,” he said.

Mr. Isaacs said if the parliamentarians are seated three feet apart, the ACCC’s main meeting area would be catering for  72 persons including the 65 parliamentarians.

Two government ministers- Foreign Affairs Minister Hugh Todd and Tourism Minister Oneidge Waldron- were recently tested positive for COVID-19 which has so far infected more than 1,000 Guyanese and killed more than 30 others.