General Secretary of the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Bharrat Jagdeo yesterday slammed the National COVID-19 Task Force for a lack of leadership and for not providing guidance on the reopening of the economy.
In a video statement released yesterday, Jagdeo stressed that he was concerned about the operation of the task force which has been established to manage Guyana’s response to the novel coronavirus disease.
The task force is headed by de facto Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo and its Chief Executive Officer is Joseph Harmon.
So far the government has implemented a two-month partial lockdown inclusive of a 6 pm to 6 am curfew and restrictions on the operations of businesses. However as the date for full reopening, June 3, draws closer questions have been raised about the protocols likely to be used since the cases of COVID-19 continue to increase.
The opposition leader drew attention to neighbouring Trinidad and Tobago, which has announced three main phases in which the country will reopen. As of Thursday, Trinidad has no COVID-19 patient in the hospital. Jagdeo stressed that simply because a country can’t stay in lockdown forever most countries across the world have decided how they will open up, with Guyana being among the exceptions.
“There is no leadership…they have not outlined a protocol of reopening [so] the population is just going back to normal. People are getting tired and that’s the last thing you want. The last thing you want is people coming out without the state establishing guidelines,” he lamented.
Jagdeo also criticized the way in which the lockdown itself was administered, saying that no measures for mitigation have been implemented.
“One would’ve expected that they would’ve used the lockdown to improve our capacity to handle more cases should the number increase post lockdown until such time as a vaccine is developed or persons develop an immunity [but] nothing has been done,” he repeatedly stressed.
The Health ministry has been issuing daily updates on the country’s infections, deaths and recoveries but no policy position outside of those related to containment measures have been detailed.
On Friday the task force approved the return of 300 Guyanese stranded overseas on the condition that they test negative for COVID-19. Great care was taken to mention that this is a conditional re-entry and that Guyana’s airspace remains closed.
In recent days, the government has also announced aid for those affected by the COVID-19 lockdown but has provided no information on the scale of the assistance or where the money is coming from.
