Dear Editor,
As the infections for the coronavirus pandemic mount, regions around Guyana must introduce measures to reduce the spread, raise awareness among communities, and gain citizens’ compliance.
The potential contribution of traditional leaders has mostly not been considered. This is despite the role they have played in addressing health crises. Government must now rely heavily on mass communication and educational efforts within all the sectors to ensure that citizens comply with measures to control the pandemic.
Recently, the Police have taken up this task. However, this must be a comprehensive effort made by every Guyanese; the Police may, on occasion, have to use extreme measures to enforce COVID-19 regulations, which may bring a level of distrust for the Police. We all are aware that in the past five months, the efforts of the previous Government officials and agencies were often thinly spread or ineffective, especially in rural and peri-urban areas; and in these areas, information, safety-related resources and healthcare were scarce or absent.
That is why the PPP/C Government’s pandemic control efforts must include actors in the form of persons whom the communities trust and respect, and who interact closely with the general public.
Our traditional leaders are ideally positioned to respond in a culturally relevant way to people in the rural and peri-urban areas. Indeed, it has always been revealed that traditional leaders have more popular legitimacy than elected leaders in many communities.
Based on work we have done with filariasis over the past year: educating every region and community (both male and female and children), encouraging them to comply with health directives, and intervening to help people get healthcare, our Government must take that same approach with the COVID -19 pandemic, using similar teams, visiting every home, educating and sharing leaflets with health guidelines and consequences.
As our population continues to be at risk throughout Guyana, I suggest we embark on a one-month exercise similar to the one taken for filariasis, in which health workers and volunteers visited homes and workplaces in all regions throughout the country.
The Government needs to dismantle all the regional COVID-19 task forces created under the APNU/AFC caretaker Government in all the regions, and take a new approach and establish new task forces as the Government intensifies the lockdown and expands testing, where locally transmitted cases have increased in many areas. This new approach and requirement made by our Minister of Health asks a little bit more of our residents who are up and about the community in order to protect their health and safety and that of our frontline workers.
If everyone would wear their mask in public, keeping reasonable distance from one another, we can reduce infections and deaths in a short period of time, and keep them low until the vaccine or treatment is discovered and widely available, which I think we all believe can happen in a reasonably short period of time. But if these guidelines are not followed, then there must be an increase in the penalties because of the continuing lackadaisical attitude of some people towards compliance of the SOPs to flatten the pandemic curve.
Certain quarters may feel that the proposed increase is too steep, while there are those who opine that a heavier fine was needed to send a message that the Government is serious in its fight against COVID-19. But the underlying message for suggesting an increase in fines is to show that the authorities are very serious in fighting the dreaded disease. As responsible citizens, we must do our bit to achieve the same goal; the sooner the better.
Another deterrent measure that could be enforced to discourage people from breaching the law is to adopt the “blame and shame” approach. It could be done through the imposition of punishment like compulsory community service, where the miscreants would be exposed to the public. Our Government must stress on strong enforcement of the current or possible amended laws, and ensure enforcement on all strata of society, as weak actions would only result in negated effects to the potential increase of fines.
To earn public respect and confidence, the law must be equally applied to all: from the man in the street to the office worker, to the businessman, to the civil servant and the politicians. Currently, there have been inconsistencies in fines imposed, leading to much criticism in the social media. To some extent, the disparity can be explained by the fact that not all court officials think alike, and since the discretion is theirs to determine how much fine to impose, the sentences are likely to vary in severity. It is therefore proposed that a specific sum be stipulated for a specific offence, instead of just stating a range, like ‘up to’ or ‘not less than’,”.
Unfortunately, COVID-19 is real, and it kills.
Sincerely,
David Adams
