Dear Editor,
The last thing I would want to do is spread inappropriate alarms and frighten further an already reeling and vulnerable population; at, least the ones that care enough to be concerned about COVID-19 developments. But I would be irresponsible, if I were to be indifferent to some information that came to me or keep it to myself. I am troubled from having heard near similar stories from other people.
I think the Guyanese public needs to be made aware of what is really happening. I think, as much as it may be found unwelcome and untimely, I must share to let the professionals and politicians know that close attention is being paid by some of us. This is another call to go beyond the rhetoric and address the realities that cry out for real action. Lives are involved, whole communities could be potentially impacted; the nation is at risk if the official and professional urgencies required are not forthcoming in a timely manner. They have not been in some instances with which I am familiar.
I open two daily newspapers and I pause by the hotline numbers. That is a good and helpful facility. But they fail in terms of their presence, objectives, and effectiveness if little happens beyond the calls answered promptly and courteously (also good things). If there are only smooth promises, and then the vacuum of silence, then those hotlines might as well not be there. I say this because of incidents shared by people who called and are still waiting for a call, a guiding hand, anything to comfort and allay apprehensions. There has been nothing in two instances and this is from weeks ago; the people are still here.
Similarly, I understand something else and this is not from rumour or mischief or other improper behaviour at this time; it is from what I consider an honest and trusted source. It is that victim number five from the virus experienced delays with testing after contacting the hotline. Now he is no more, with a grieving family left behind. I feel for them. Worse yet, it is my understanding that the departed citizen may have been in contact with as many as a hundred persons (maybe even more) around the time that the virus came, which is last week at the latest.
The problem and concern are that nobody has attempted to identify the cluster of persons with whom he had had confirmed interaction and take matters from there. For emphasis: those people may be walking around unknowingly with this virus and extending the circle of those, who could be affected. My hope is that none caught this pestilence from him. The odds are not appealing. I would hope that a feared cluster is not in the making; or that it is not the same incomprehensible story for the four earlier victims.
I am aware that there are limited resources and available people are strapped tight. Nonetheless, we have to do more. Our public health leaders must demonstrate that they are doing everything to restrict the spread of this dreaded illness. We cannot hope for the best and hope that we get lucky, while ignoring the potentially worse that may exist out there, but is left unattended, as in unquarantined. This is confidence draining and fear-inducing. It is insensible and defeats the positives marshalled and employ-ed to wage a good fight, the best, against a dreadful adversary.
To repeat an earlier position, politics is still occupying too much of our interest, too much of energies, and too much of whatever residual good sense we may still have at our disposal. It is way past the time for matters to be the other way around. That is, the virus and virus alone functioning as our highest priority and while utilizing the greatest expenditure of our time, our finances, our efforts, and our devotions.
Think of this: we may emerge triumphant in an election, but lose lives, forced to deal with a ruined economic environment, and with whatever spirits we have left decimated. This is what we face. I urge, therefore, that we do the right things in the right way at the right time. It is not related in any way to politics.
Yours faithfully,
GHK Lall
