The government is bending in its ways
Kaieteur News – Two other people died yesterday of the coronavirus. This brings the total number of deaths to 203.
As of yesterday, there were eight people in the COVID-19 Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Based on the serious case death rate, two more of these people are likely to die this week. This will mean more grief and suffering.
And the government is still acting as if the situation is under control. I am not. Since January, there has been a large increase in cases. Since the beginning of the year, nearly 2,500 cases, averaging almost 20 cases a day, have been among the highest average cases in any given period.
Guyana was doing well going into the Christmas holidays, when a vaccine became available internationally. But there has been a sharp rise during the Christmas and New Year holidays, undoubtedly caused by irresponsible behavior and poor enforcement.
But the Christmas and New Year celebrations can only account for the continued increase in new cases. It could be the case that we have new variants. The last sample sent to CARPHA – a Caribbean reference laboratory, was far too small and perhaps some of the most recent cases should be referred back to that institution to determine whether Guyana has acquired the highly infectious variant from Brazil, the United Kingdom or South Africa. If we have, the death rate is going to skyrocket.
Guyana’s per capita death rate is very high. Compared to other countries in the Region, our per capita death rate is even higher than Venezuela’s. It is higher than Saint Lucia, Antigua, Montserrat, Jamaica, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Haiti and Grenada. Guyana is not doing any good at reducing mortality and may need international assistance to offer treatment advice.
The Ministry of Health has been reluctant to provide much information, apart from the age and Region of residence of the deceased. As such, many conclusions and conclusions cannot be drawn about these deaths. In fact, the Ministry of Health has not published any analysis of COVID-related deaths, which can help the public, and the Ministry itself, to gain a better understanding of these deaths.
The Ministry does not even have the decency to advise the public of the total number of cases by Region. This has to be calculated either from the daily reports or citizens have to wait. The Citizen Initiative provides much more information than the Ministry of Health, and ironically their data, from the Ministry of Health.
The Ministry of Health does not provide regional analysis of new or active cases. It hardly ever provides information about specific villages or communities affected. And of course, for reasons of privacy and confidentiality, there is no mention of the identities of the deceased.
The Ministry of Health is not going to become more transparent. It has treated the public with utter contempt by withholding critical data and through its failure to publish any detailed analysis of the local causes of the virus. The public does not know the number of deaths by age range. They do not know exactly how many of those who died had underlying conditions.
But more importantly, little is known about the possible ways in which the infected caught the virus. Many elderly people have died and it is speculated that infected younger people may have caught the virus and carried it home.
Schools are likely to reopen shortly after Easter and if this is done without the majority of the high-risk population being vaccinated, Guyana could be in real disaster because once the virus goes in to the school system, it will spread like wildfire with help.
However, the government is not going to change its ways. It’s not going to become more transparent. That promise has already been thrown out the window. People now have to help each other overcome this pandemic.
More than 200 people have died so far. And very few of their families have come forward to talk about their experience. They may feel stigmatized. But they owe it in memory of their loved ones to try to educate the public about the experience of their loved ones and how they caught the virus, so that people can get a better idea of the forms of local community spread and if younger people go bring the virus home and infect the elderly.
Of the more than 8,000 infected people over the past year, only a handful of people have come forward to share their experience. If this changes and more people speak out – especially about those who have died – Guyanese may start to take the pandemic more seriously.
The people owe it to each other to come forward and share their stories. By sharing your story, you can help stop rather than share the virus.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of this newspaper.)