The energetic co-founder of the Reliance Healthcare Group, Jermaine Ifill described himself in his LinkedIn profile as “ambitious and open-minded, honest and kind,” someone who loved travelling and working.
His Kitty-based company offered medical emergency services and training in skills from first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to advance cardiac support. Clients included the Public Health Ministry, doctors, nurses, first responders, private patients, parents and students, drawn from Guyana’s ten regions.
Two weeks ago, his firm’s Events and Resource Coordinator, Mark James Smith announced Reliance was closing and cancelling all training until further notice due to the COVID-19 virus pandemic, joining dozens of other local businesses which have been hard hit. A United Nations (UN) report estimates that up to 25 million jobs could be lost around the world as the result of the outbreak.
On Tuesday afternoon, a stunned Mr. Smith was struggling, like many others to come terms with the sudden death that morning of his close friend. The 38-year-old Managing Director and father of a young baby, Mr. Ifill helped save lives for a living but ironically lost his in the process.
Reports indicate that he started to feel sick early last month after returning from the Suddie Hospital, Essequibo Coast in Region Two, where he had trained staff in basic CPR. He was admitted with a lingering cough to the Georgetown Public Hospital a week ago, diagnosed with pneumonia, and tested positive for the dreaded COVID-19 virus over the weekend.
An Emergency Medical Technician, Mr. Ifill was identified on social media as the second patient to have died in Guyana from the raging coronavirus that has already killed over 47,000 people and sickened nearly a million in some 200 countries worldwide, with fatalities and cases predicted to climb.
Screenshots of Whatsapp conversations in which Mr. Ifill complained that he could not breathe, and related photographs of him wearing a mask at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), have been widely shared online. Disbelieving friends commented on his demise extending condolences to his now-quarantined pregnant wife who is a nurse at the facility, and affected family.
A tearful Mr. Smith lamented, “How many more deaths are needed for us to take this thing serious (ly)? My head is hurting after hearing the news … Today, I lost more than my boss. I lost a friend, a mentor, a father figure and so much more. Can’t begin to formulate sentences how I’m so much in a shock, I have no appetite. I’m sitting here wishing someone would just pop up and say ‘April Fools.’ Who would have known? The Reliance Healthcare team didn’t just lose its co-founder but the backbone, the driving force.”
Overnight, the smooth-skinned, serious face of the young Mr. Ifill has emerged as the unofficial poster patient of the deadly battle Guyana faces, with its beleaguered health system, baffling and dangerous refusal by authorities to introduce an overdue national lockdown as recommended by experts; and far too many residents blissfully unwilling to stay at home and to practise social isolation and recommended distancing.
Expressing alarm over the “cavalier” approach of some, experts such as Dr William Adu-Krow, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO)/WHO representative in Guyana, expressed concern that Guyanese are not taking social distancing seriously. He is recommending a partial lockdown to combat the spread of the disease.
“The schools are closed, the airports are closed but all this makes no sense if we do not adhere to precautionary measures,” Dr Adu-Krow told Stabroek News.
Images of unconcerned shoppers continuing to crowd markets, streets and public places are numerous, even as officials said seven more coronavirus cases were recorded overnight Tuesday, bringing the total number to 19. Seventeen are from the main Region Four while the remainder come from Regions Three and Six. Yesterday, Osa Collins, a 78 year-old resident of New Amsterdam who was confirmed to have contracted COVID-19 died at the GPHC as fatalities climbed to four. Ms. Collins was considered an ‘imported case’ as she had recently travelled to the United States of America, which has suffered over 190,000 cases of coronavirus and some 4,000 deaths.
Guyana’s country’s first death, Patient Zero, was 52-year-old Ratna Baboolall who passed away at the hospital three weeks ago, on returning from New York. Four of her relatives tested positive and were subsequently placed in isolation, while dozens of other people she came into contact with, were alerted and advised.
The update emerged even as the Ministry of the Presidency rushed to deny that the 74-year-old incumbent President David Granger is afflicted with the virus, insisting that he “is enjoying good health.” A month following the March 2, 2020 general elections, the country remains paralysed with the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) still to credibly recount Region Four votes. A spate of legal action by figures from both of the major parties culminated with the recent Full Court ruling clearing the way, but the Commission postponed a resulting meeting to today.
Yesterday Georgetown Mayor, Ubraj Narine, blithely acknowledged that he has “come under tremendous criticism” after informing the media he lacked “the authority to ‘lockdown” the city and place it under a curfew.” Mr. Narine had said, “There are many calls about a city lockdown. But I can say to you, the city is not a light bulb where you can flick a switch and lock it down like that. We will not lock down the city.”
In his latest statement, he maintained it is “prudent” to consult with the Ministry of Public Health, the Ministry of Communities, the Ministry of Public Security, the Private Sector Commission and the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry before making a decision.
“With Georgetown being the capital city and the main economic hub for the country, a number of measures need to be implemented before a lockdown/curfew is enforced. Such measures can, and will in most instances, disrupt aspects of our way of life,” Mr. Narine argued.
While, “We can all agree that limiting the movement of persons is necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19… the Council must take the necessary precautions to enforce a lockdown/curfew and to enforce penalties, where measures implemented, are breached.” So, “it is my hope that you understand that any uninformed or ill-informed measure taken by me, to place the capital city under a lockdown/curfew can result in high levels of anxiety and psychological distress for the Guyanese people.”
For mourners like Mr. Smith, who lost his mother when he was just three, COVID-19 fatality number two, Jermaine Ifill “is my first actually traumatic death experience.”
“Thanks for pushing me, for believing in me, you hired me after I resigned from Red Cross … we met at karaoke … drinking 5 year old (rum) and (you) hired me right there and then…… three years ago on the spot in front of the American Embassy,” he recalled.
In a Facebook public post, he pondered as he wept, “How do you stop your face from leaking? Been doing this since this morning….why won’t it stop….Jay RIP. I Love you Dude.#RelianceForLife.”
Mr, Smith wrote about his pal and boss “You were loved and will be forever loved …. your legacy will live on for a fact, in the hearts of your wife, sons, family but most importantly your baby Reliance and in the lives of the many medical and non-medical workers we’ve trained… we will continue to carry the work that you have push(ed) to start … that is to make Guyana’s medical system one of the best in the Caribbean and the world …”
ID hopes the capital’s Mayor and the authorities see the light soon, or Guyana will have even more of a power crisis than mere blackouts.
