Guyanese warned against crowding, packed shopping spaces during holiday

The holiday season is in full swing, prompting warnings to Guyanese to desist from gathering in large groups and shopping without caution in crowded areas.

Shopping in confined spaces is more common in recent time, highlighted Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Tuesday. He warned that this can lead to spikes in infection of the COVID-19 virus, thus exacerbating the public health situation.
“There are lots of overcrowding in many of the shops. People are going around to do Christmas shopping and all of that. They’re crowding these places. If you’re in a very crowded, indoor environment that doesn’t have a lot of ventilation, the chances are if somebody is positive, they can share that virus with persons who are around them. We still have to take all the public health measures that we have spoken about,” said the Minister.
Guyana has surpassed the 400,000 first dose coverage among the adult population, which accounts for about 78.1 per cent. Second doses are at 278,058 or 54.2 per cent. The health official pointed out that with countries intensifying immunisation, Government will not be complacent.
“Almost every country now is intensifying its vaccination efforts. We need to do that here as well. We cannot be complacent. We need to increase our vaccination efforts. There is a lot of score in what we’re doing in terms of vaccination. There are still people who haven’t come forward to get their first dose. We need to do that.”
Presently many persons are yet to come forward and take the jabs. Booster coverage is about 1000 but the subset of people eligible for the shots are significant. A breakdown of booster dose uptake shows four for Region Two, 77 in Region Three, 739 in Region Four, 22 in Region Five, 173 in Region Six, 212 in Region Seven, one in Eight and 57 in Region Nine. No one took the shots in Regions One and 10.
Meanwhile, the coverage among children has been moving at a slothful pace.
He examined, “In the children 13 to 17, at 40 per cent first dose, that’s still relatively low. We have vaccines for this age category and therefore, we want to encourage parents, guardians to encourage these young people to come and get their vaccines. It’s important that you get vaccinated now. With all that is happening and the variant of concern Omicron circulating, it’s just a matter of time before it probably spreads because we have seen it is now getting distributed in the world.”
Dr Anthony has continuously expressed that there are enough vaccines in the country to vaccinate citizens. With new variants emerging, immunisation would provide protection against death.
“I just want to say to people, get vaccinated plus it is not just about vaccination. You also have to abide by the other public health measures that we have put in place. There’s still too many people who believe that somehow, COVID has disappeared from Guyana and they’re walking around without masks. They’re entering buildings without a mask. They don’t want to keep social distancing.” (G12)