Integrated plan, equal application of rules needed to fight COVID-19 – GHRA

The Guyana Human Rights Association on Saturday accused the National COVID-19 Taskforce of ignoring Guyanese history saying that epidemics in Guyana – malaria, TB and HIV – multiplied undetected, only to surge dramatically when numbers were out of control.
In a statement the GHRA stated that two major reasons explain this phenomenon, “all Governmental administrative services in the interior are inadequate because of distance and terrain and, secondly, because Amerindians are highly vulnerable to imported diseases to which they have limited immunity.”
According to the GHRA, the COVID- 19 Task Force can take credit for having promoted all these WHO-recommended public health practices. “Success in the public health arena is vital to off-set limitations on the local medical front – inadequate testing, protective equipment and treatment. To the extent that medical resources (to date) are not overwhelmed, the Task Force and Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) deserve our appreciation,” it added.
The human right grouping reference to the malaria epidemic of the mid-80s as a good example. “In addition to the endemic scourge of TB, 3,686 reported cases of malaria were recorded in August 1985. By the end of that year the annual figure had risen to 7,600. Entire communities, in the Rupununi and the Upper Mazaruni in particular, were affected by this epidemic. By June of 1986, malaria had affected over 16,000 persons (PAHO estimates). The total number of cases reported between January and August 1987 was approximately 17,000 of which over 60% were falciparum cases.”
It added that a coastal coalition of 12 religious, civic, professional and business organisations, including the Guyana Medical Association and the Gold and Diamond Miners Association took action in conjunction with health workers in the communities some three-quarter million anti-malaria tablets were distributed from early 1986 to early 1989.
According to the collaborative actions of this nature are nowadays much easier to manage given the strengthened capacity for self-governance of indigenous communities and the regional and national coordination of Toshaos through the National Toshaos Council.
However, despite this multiplicity of representative indigenous bodies at community, regional and national level, indigenous influence and participation in the Covid-19 Task Force appears non-existent, the GHRA said.
At bottom the National Covid-19 Task Force needs to recognize that cooperation from the communities is more vital for the success of its ultimate aims than from the miners. It pointed out that the time for preparing this community-based foundation is slipping away.
“The bottom line is that strong leadership is required to keep coastal interests from side-lining essential actions if the Covid-19 negative impact on Guyana is to be contained at its present level,” the GHRA said.
Such leadership, it added, should focus on a unified and integrated plan in which the rules apply equally to all – on the cost, in riverain areas and in the interior.
“This implies that measures such as restrictions on mining and lock-down on all vehicles travelling inland from either Linden or Lethem.” In this regard the, the GHRA adds its voice to the calls for mining, which is neither essential nor a service, to be removed from the list of Essential Services.