Continued lockdown of Guyana would have been counterproductive – President Ali

…says balance must be struck between fighting COVID-19 and economy

Citing studies which show that locking down a country as the primary means of fighting COVID-19 would actually be counterproductive, President Dr Irfaan Ali has stated he has backed the reopening of Guyana’s main ports of entry.
He, nevertheless, urged citizens to follow the protocols that were put in place to curb the coronavirus.

In a recent statement on the reopening of the airports, which took effect on Monday, Ali said that he supported the advice of the relevant authorities while adding that Guyana was prepared to be reopened in a manner that would ensure the safety of those who work at and pass through the airports.
According to Ali, a balance must be struck between fighting the virus on the medical front with the assistance of the international community and ensuring that the economy remained functioning and growing. The President pointed out that the last thing Guyana needed was an economic recession.
“We have recently seen new studies showing that lockdown may not be the best way. What we have to do as leaders is to find the right balance and ensure that coming out of the pandemic, we do not head into severe economic recession. We already have a situation, where the economy has been affected tremendously. What we are doing is basically trying to find the balance while operating, managing, and living in COVID environment.

“We have to also ensure that we develop strong protocols and guidelines and to have persons follow, stringently, those guidelines, so that these can be the buffer that gives us an opportunity to rebalance the way we deal with this, from a medical as well as a socio-economic perspective,” the President further explained.
During an emergency multi-stakeholder meeting back in August, President Ali had assured attendees that any decision to reopen Guyana’s airports would only be made once all the relevant factors have been carefully considered.
And while the airports reopen, President Ali continues to engage with world leaders in the areas of collaboration and support for enhancing Guyana’s response to the pandemic. Discussion has revolved around enhancing Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) testing capacity and assistance in the form of equipment and vaccines.
In addition, the President and his Cabinet have led the sensitisation efforts. Over the past weekend, he and several Government Ministers carried out visits to various communities across the country to sensitise citizens about the pandemic, while urging them to wear a mask and follow all applicable protocols.
The decision to reopen Guyana’s airports comes just as the World Health Organisation (WHO) Special COVID-19 envoy, Dr David Nabarro urged world leaders to stop locking down their countries and economies as the primary means of control of the virus.
On October 11, Dr Nabarro had appealed to world leaders and warned them to stop using lockdowns as their primary method of controlling the spread of the coronavirus. Dr Nabarro had claimed that the only thing lockdowns achieved was poverty and, therefore, such restrictive measures should only be considered as a last resort.
“Lockdowns just have one consequence that you must never ever belittle, and that is making poor people an awful lot poorer… The only time we believe a lockdown is justified is to buy you time to reorganise, regroup, rebalance your resources, protect your health workers who are exhausted, but by and large, we’d rather not do it,” Dr Nabarro had said.
According to the WHO representative, the only way to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic is through the use of various policies and interventions in a coordinated, organised manner. This is a sentiment that has been echoed by various experts.