The announcement a matter of days ago by the Dominican-born Director of the Pan American Health Organisation Dr Carissa Etienne, that between them, Latin America and the Caribbean have now chalked up in excess of a million Covid-19 casualties, came just at that point in time when Caribbean countries, faced with some measure of indifference to strict observance of the related protocols as well as to the taking of the prescribed vaccines, had begun to double down on the strictures, not least curfews and complete lockdowns, in a desperate hope to fend off what is believed to be a second, possibly more virulent strain of the virus.
The macabre milestone provided yet another reason for the PAHO top official to remind those remaining largely indifferent pockets of people in the region to desist from facing down the pandemic, though here in Guyana and elsewhere in the region it appears that the authorities are facing a pushback not just from the populace as a whole but also from large chunks of a private sector complaining of the economic burden that continues to be imposed by restraints on trading.