Fmr. manager at Chronicle dies from COVID-19 in US; five friends in ICU

A former Advertising Manager at the Guyana Chronicle has succumbed to COVID-19 related complications in the United States while five of his friends are in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) battling the deadly disease.

Seventy-year-old Leon Gaskin known as ‘Pretty quick’ who lived in Georgetown before migrating in 2007, died on Sunday night in New York, according to former Director of the Guyana Chronicle Bert Wilkinson.

“It was a shocker, I haven’t seen him since last September when I was in the US,” Wilkinson said of his friend.

Wilkinson told the News Room that five of Gaskin’s friends are now in Intensive Care Unit (ICU) in Queens, New York because they did not adhere to social distancing rules in the early stages of the pandemic.

“Most of his friends he hangs out with, most of them are in ICU as well…it is about five mature guys who will catch up after work…apparently they weren’t that strict with the social distancing rules and masking up and all that so it’s pretty bad,” Wilkinson said.

The NY Consulate General of Guyana has created an online memorial for Guyanese who have died from COVID-19. It aims to pay tribute to those persons who would have died from the pandemic and by extension, all Guyanese in the Diaspora and at home.

So far, over 50 photos have been posted to the page of Guyanese who died from the disease in the US.