COVID-19 is spreading across Guyana, relentlessly touching across the villages on the coast and in the hinterland. Unfortunately, it has already left a trail of death. For almost six months, the previous government neglected the crisis that was developing. Now the new government is forced to buy body bags instead of trying to buy laptops for children. The trail is about to see more dead bodies, unless we get serious, stop being stubborn, begin to be respectful of this unseen enemy, this existential threat in Guyana.
More than 1100 persons have been documented with COVID-19, 31 have died by the end of August 24. At this moment, the Intensive Care Unit at the GPHC is completely filled with COVID-19 patients. For a small country like Guyana, this is a calamity. It, therefore, boggles my mind to see how careless and reckless the Guyanese people are in the midst of the COVID-19 virus. Ms. Volda Lawrence appeared in court on Monday to face private charges she tried to thief an election. Hundreds showed up to support her. They breached the law, appearing in public without masks and totally ignoring the common sense thing of social distancing. They hollered and screamed into each other’s face. Neither Ms. Lawrence nor other leaders, like James Bond, sought to discourage their followers or to encourage them to follow the law and good sense to stay safe.
Ms. Lawrence is Guyana’s former Minister of Health and was squatting in the Minister of Health’s office when COVID-19 was first documented in Guyana. Ms. Lawrence, while wearing a mask to protect herself, failed to warn her supporters about the danger of COVID-19, comfortably basking glorious as her supporters risked their lives, no masks, no social distancing, on her behalf. Ms. Lawrence continued her reckless behavior in the full view of the world, refusing to lead by example, still walking her supporters down the dark road to calamity. This is the same lady that allowed the COVID-19 to simmer and now it is boiling over. The quiet spread of COVID-19 that was allowed to silently spread across the country, with little or no effort to stop it, is now exploding, not in one part of Guyana, but across Guyana.
But Ms. Lawrence is not the only APNU+AFC leader to encourage the lawlessness of supporters risking their lives by gathering in public with no masks. Her leader, David Granger, in the last six months, especially during the shameless attempt to thief the elections, often appeared in front of supporters with his mask on, while the supporters were mask-less.
On weekends, hundreds of Guyanese gather on the seawall. At the hinterland “landings”, hundreds gather to socialize and “sport”. Bars across Guyana seem oblivious of the danger that lurks at every corner. There is a curfew, but no one appears to respect it. Most of those out “sporting” in the curfew ignore the law that every citizen must mask-up every time they come out of home. Guyana seems especially retarded when it comes to social distancing. The police is another thing altogether. The police sometimes enforce the curfew, but at other times seem blind, deaf and dumb. The police commander of West Demerara, Region 3, last week did the right thing when he walked into a rum shop and threatened to charge all those in there who pretended they never heard about COVID-19. But policemen and women watched stupidly as hundreds gathered at the high court to scream and generously spit in each other’s faces, not a single police appeared conscious of the danger they were harboring.
The irony of Monday’s court appearance is that it was Ms. Lawrence who was in charge of Guyana’s anemic COVID-19 response from the beginning until just three weeks ago. The most egregious of Guyana’s failure, until now, was the absurdly low to non-existent testing for COVID-19. Up to the end of June, Guyana barely did an average of 30 tests per day. While, in July, there were days when testing reached 100 tests per day, there were many days when no test was done.
This changed in August, as the new PPP Government elevated the importance of testing. Last Wednesday with 208 tests done, it was the first time Guyana surpassed 200 tests in a day. Last Sunday, with 357 tests, Guyana surpassed 300 COVID-19 tests for the first time ever. It is really criminal that a group of people led by David Granger and Volda Lawrence spent $1.6B on rehabilitating a building they did not own, but could not spend less than 0.1% of that to increase Guyana’s testing capacity.
The new government has ramped up testing. As testing increases, the truth is being revealed. COVID-19 was allowed to quietly spread while the country’s government was too busy trying to thief an election. Guyanese must stop thinking this is a hoax. China did not bring COVID-19 to Guyana, so let us stop spreading fake news. COVID-19 took hold in Guyana because our then government recklessly decided they can pretend COVID-19 will simply leave Guyana. It was irresponsible. It was criminal malfeasance by Ms Lawrence and others. Now the new government must end the calamity.
