Dear Editor
The A Partnership of National Unity (APNU/AFC) Coalition believes that the Constitution of Guyana should always be upheld, especially when it comes to every citizen having the right to free and optimal healthcare. Indeed, immediate action must always be taken to address pandemics which have become frequent and fatal. Efforts must be made to utilize the Public Health Ordinance, international standards and/or best practices, to prevent and control disease contagion. The Public Health mantra: “Healthy People, Healthy Communities”, must be borne in mind. Hence, recognizing the seriousness of the health and well-being of the Guyanese populace, the APNU/AFC Coalition under the leadership of Brigadier Ret’d David Arthur Granger, the former President of the Cooperative Republic of Guyana, on March 16, 2020, after the index case of COVID-19 in Guyana, made a gazette order that saw the creation of national action plans, to quickly and competently address this novel and dreaded disease.
All sectors of Government became involved by providing ministerial action plans, containment measures, micro and macro interventions and recommendations, along with exit strategies, as to how to mitigate the effects and impact of the coronavirus. To this effect, virtual office functionality became mandatory during the lockdown period. The Agriculture and Business sectors were actively involved and as such Small Farmers for example were encouraged to provide the necessary food items to keep the food chain flowing as channeled through the Coordinating Agency for Small Enterprise (CASE), and the Rural Entrepreneurial Agricultural Project (REAP); so much so, that hamper distributions had included items from the farmers. There was also the distribution of monetary aid to supplement the income of families affected by the COVID-19, channeled through the Social Protection Ministry and the Civil Defense Commission.
Again, the creation of the National Task Force (NCTF) quickly came into full gear with the mandate of coordinating, collaborating, and monitoring sector performance – reviewing tasks and outcomes from the relevant sectors, ensuring that the much needed personnel protective equipment (PPE) were available and provided to all frontline workers, thus reinforcing safety, proper hygiene protocols, and encouraging social distancing among the populace. The Health Emergency Operating Centre (HEOC) was activated nationally to ensure that adequate testing, tracking in the form of contact tracing, and the immediate treating of persons infected with the COVID-19 were accomplished. Health Staff from the ten administrative regions were re-assigned, while simultaneously providing training and capacity building to those personnel. This training provided the much needed information sharing which provided for the relevant skills to medical professionals and practitioners to ensure efficient and effective management of the health sector in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Border patrols were enhanced. A Center for Disease Prevention and Control, the first of its kind in the Caribbean, was built in record time to allow for the quarantine and isolation of susceptible and vulnerable individuals at home and abroad who did not have access to such facilities in a private setting.
Having chronicled all of the efforts of the Coalition government to combat the COVID -19 pandemic, it is indeed a dark day in Guyana when one considers the case fatality which stands at 3 percent, comparable to the United States of America (USA)- Figure on September 7, 2020. The Guyanese people will certainly want to see the epidemiological curve drawn by the Ministry of Public Health surveillance department plateau soonest, even in the light of the claim that more testing of symptomatic patients are done.
The present Government to date has not stated categorically how it will address the economic needs of the Guyanese people. I mean how much money will they advance to encourage investment, and what strategy will they employ to ensure that people have jobs as opposed to the firing and terminating of services at this critical juncture. We need to know the success or failure of the contact tracing in all the ten administrative regions for the coronavirus. We would like the weekly traffic light report as it pertains to the pandemic to once again be made available. Not encouraging persons to work from home is not helping the fight against the Coronavirus. Increasing the passenger capacity in public transportation does not help to fight the Coronavirus. A more strategic and targeted approach is needed by the current government in order to competently address the COVID-19 pandemic.
With the corona virus not knowing ethnicity, religion, or nationality, combined efforts must be made and relevant help solicited to contain this dreaded and deadly disease in the swiftest possible time period. It is clear that the APNU/AFC’s symbol of the palm and the key truly captures the fact that the Coalition is the only safe hands to take the health care system to the next level- our proposed decade of development.
Regards,
Dr. the Hon. Karen Cummings, MP
