Guyanese couple dies hours apart from COVID-19 in the U.S

A US-based Guyanese woman has lost both of her parents to COVID-19 in Houston, Texas, United States at the weekend.

Guyanese nationals, 75-year-old Abdul Wahaab and 71-year-old Tazroon Wahaab died hours apart at the Houston Methodist Hospital.

They were married for 53 years and lived at New Road Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara before migrating to the United States.

The couple’s daughter, Waheeda Hussain in an interview with KPRC-TV –an NBC associated television station in Houston Texas – said she dropped her father to the Emergency Room on Friday and her mother on Saturday. They did not spend a week before they succumbed.

“It was just so fast…” she said.

“We were able to recite the Quran for them just as their last Islamic rights so they can be at peace,” she told the news agency.

Hussain, who was also tested positive for COVID-19, was forced to watch from a car as the bodies of her parents were lowered into the ground by persons dressed in hazmat suits.

Hussain is urging persons to take the disease seriously and do everything possible to protect themselves and loved ones.

“It’s not a game, it’s not a joke, it’s not a hoax, this Coronavirus is taking lives. If you don’t have to go out, do not go out. Do whatever you can to protect yourself and loved ones,” she pleaded.

At the weekend, Chairman on the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF) Moses Nagamootoo said the New York Consulate had recorded the names of 34 Guyanese who died from COVID-19.

He said the task force is in contact with diplomatic missions across the world to get an accurate figure of how many Guyanese died from the disease in other countries.