COVID-19 is no joke “man”; too many have died

Dear Editor,
There are people who throw caution to the wind and don’t get sick. Then there are people following the rules who still fall sick.
Talk about how unfair life is. But people need to follow the rules, it will end up saving your lives.
This call is likely to fall on very closed ears. Like mine, the voices making it are not those of prominent politicians, top business people, outstanding community leaders but most importantly our Minister of Health. It is a call for an action not taken at the right moment, which was months ago. Many other countries also failed to take it, but are trying now to correct their mistake. It is still not too late for us as Guyanese.
It is a call for immediate strong enforcement of protocols – very strong. It is the only way to escape the present and worse-to-come logjam, a genuine catastrophe. Ponder the fact that our hospitals are bursting with the rapidly increasing hospitalisations.
Ponder the rapidly growing number of deaths. Then, couple those data with the fact that several months will pass before a large enough pool of people will be vaccinated.
It seems that the preventive measures identified worldwide are being ignored by most of our people. Masks are worn by a few, and there is little social distancing. The vaccine is the only solution.
The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has taken more lives in a relatively short span of time than natural and health disasters have done over years.
The number of COVID-19 deaths crossed the three-million mark on April 17, 2021, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). COVID-19 killed more people in 16 months than natural disasters in 20 years.
No disaster has killed more than 3 million people in recent history and in such a short time period
COVID-19 is now the third-leading cause of death globally after ischemic heart disease and stroke, according to the recent estimates of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME).
Even as rising cases of infections were worrying, the recent increase in the number of deaths is even more worrying. As of April 16, 2021, the pandemic is turning out to be deadlier. There has been a nearly 60 per cent increase in new deaths due to COVID-19 in just a week (April 10-16, 2021).
The number of lives lost, as compiled by Johns Hopkins University, is about equal to the population of Kyiv, Ukraine; Caracas, Venezuela; or metropolitan Lisbon, Portugal. It is bigger than Chicago (2.7 million) and equivalent to Philadelphia and Dallas combined and the true number is believed to be significantly higher because of possible governments’ concealment and the many cases overlooked in the early stages of the outbreak.
Guyanese, we must keep adhering to social distancing guidelines. Too many of our countrymen and women have fallen, the question is, what must we do to save lives? “We must all continue to wear masks and avoid crowds until all Guyanese have had an opportunity to be fully vaccinated and we must overcome vaccine hesitancy so that all Guyanese benefit from these life-saving scientific breakthroughs — including those of us who are in leadership positions, we ought to lead not by our words but by our deeds. Not just by precepts, but by examples. We ought to be an example.
Our Government has helped us deal with this pandemic painlessly. We all owe ourselves the responsibility to protect against COVID-19 and get vaccinated.

Sincerely,
David Adams