Dear Editor,
Food security is essential in this time of the COVID-19 epidemic. The Georgetown Mayor & City Council (and any other NDCs who are thinking the same thing) must reconsider their decision to shut down the municipal markets. The Friday wholesale arrangements would not be enough. Vendors can be given suitable masks, and asked to maintain the flow of customers as the supermarkets are doing. Already the restrictions on numbers to go into supermarkets is creating delays so there is no need to expect that more people have to go to supermarkets to get what they could get in the markets.
There is a silence from the Ministry of Agriculture at this time, in terms of ensuring that farmers are secure as this virus seems to be here for a long time.
There might be alternatives of mobile vendors moving through the communities and other ideas for temporary markets. These need to be encouraged and supported, and regulated within the current public health guidelines.
Guyanese do not need more stress at this time.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
