Dear Editor,
The Government of Guyana continues to demonstrate how reckless and careless they are when it comes to the health and safety of Guyanese.
Permit me space to address this pertinent issue, which from the Government’s perspective, may not be seen as pertinent, since it appears as though ‘COVID-19 pack up he georgie bundle and gone’. The Government’s decision to restrict its Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing attracted some amount of public attention as many, including myself, saw the move as Government attempting to hide the real impact of COVID-19 from the populace and provide a fictitious reality allowing for their “economic agenda”.
In a matter of days after the decision was made to restrict PCR testing, we saw both state and some private media entities reporting that COVID cases have decreased here in Guyana. In fact, even Reuters on its COVID-19 tracker have reported that Guyana COVID-19 cases are decreasing after we have recorded our highest daily average on January 17, 2022. This does not sit well with me. What the Government of Guyana is doing cannot be seen as caring or sensible. It is nothing short of wickedness and deceit, pretending as if they have things under control. This only allows for the reckless and careless to become more reckless and careless, putting them and their loved ones at great risk. Just recently, we saw the removal of the National Curfew which was more of a selective curfew that paved the way for a return to mass late night entertainment. Fact is the Government could not have articulated a plan for this year’s Mashramani celebration during the recently concluded budget debates, yet we are seeing a number of events that are being touted as sponsored by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports.
We must remember that this Government was the main contributor to the spike in our COVID numbers last December into January 2022 by way of hosting and allowing a number of mass events. Question we must ask ourselves now is what has changed from then to now? The answer is simple, we are testing less. COVID is still here, people are still being infected and people are still dying, but that means nothing to this Government since they continue to show us that the value of a dollar outweighs the value of a life. The government has had a poor educational COVID-19 campaign, what we heard most of the time was “all the information is public, just go look for it”. Now that everything is relaxed one would have expected a robust campaign to encourage persons to employ the necessary measures to stay safe as we strive to return to normalcy, but I guess that info is already public and persons should go look for it. There is so much that can be said as it relates to the Government’s action on this issue but I will stop here for now. What we must note, however, is that after all these events we will not know the surge in COVID-19 cases because the majority of the people won’t have access to PCR tests at public facilities.
My encouragement and advice to my fellow Guyanese is to not be lured into the false sense of belief that ‘COVID-19 pack up he georgie bundle and gone’; act responsibly, value your life and that of your loved ones, COVID still dwells among us. Continue to follow the necessary precautions, wear your mask, sanitize, social distance, eat as healthy as possible and drink lots of fluids.
Sincerely,
Clayon Halley
