Today the United States celebrates Thanksgiving; a tradition that reportedly dates back to 1621 when the Plymouth colonists and Wampanoag Native Americans shared an autumn harvest feast, although it was not until nearly 250 years later in 1863, that the then president Abraham Lincoln proclaimed it a national holiday. Despite warnings from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) not to travel because of COVID-19, millions of Americans left their homes and went by plane, train, bus, and car to be with relatives and friends in other towns and states to celebrate the holiday the way they have done over the years: with turkey and trimmings, with love and fellowship. Food, love and fellowship are all necessary to optimally maintain the human condition. Unfortunately, at a time like this, community does not favour the human condition and will only serve to accelerate the number of cases in the US, already the highest in the world with nearly 13 million infections and close to 265,000 deaths as of Tuesday this week.
As of November 21, the CDC had also warned Americans against travelling to 179 countries, Guyana included, where it deemed the COVID-19 risk was “level 4” or very high. Ten countries, Barbados among them, were cited as having moderate risk, and those at increased danger for severe illness from COVID-19 were warned against non-essential travel to them. Meanwhile 49 countries were regarded as low risk – New Zealand and Taiwan – are on this list, where the warnings were to wear a mask, maintain distance and sanitise. With COVID-19 swarming America from sea to shining sea, one imagines that it would be on every other country’s no-travel list – if anything, the US is a level 5 given its infection rate – and if that were indeed the case, the CDC warning would be to no purpose. But that is not so. Americans are travelling, many for business, and they doubtless consider it essential even as their country is in the throes of a hot COVID mess.
The UK and Canada, both currently in lockdown, are among countries that had reopened after seeing their numbers drop, and then had to reverse as the cases began to rise, in what is now being called the second wave, even higher than they had been before. Neither had the stringent restrictions that were seen in New Zealand and Taiwan. In fact, a minority of countries adopted them, which is why the ‘level 4’ list is the longest.
From the get-go, Guyana’s COVID-19 response left a lot to be desired. Coming as it did with the country in the midst of an election crisis, there was no alacrity in the way the government dealt with it early on. As mentioned before, while ports of entry, some businesses and schools were closed, a full lockdown was never implemented. Instead, a curfew was imposed, but it was continually both broken and challenged with seeming impunity.
A new government took the reins in August and no one expected to see good results immediately, but surely things should be better than they are nearly four months later. Between March, when it saw its first case and death and today, this country’s infection curve has never sloped downwards. Instead, there have been days that caused complete consternation, like September 23, when there were 133 confirmed cases. Furthermore, between August and this month, there have been 3 deaths a day on at least 12 occasions, maybe more.
Clearly, something is not quite right.
Government formally reopened ports of entry last month and partially reopened schools this month, catering only for grades 10 to 12 on a rotational basis as well as practical and vocational instruction centres. Offices that had closed or scaled down were reopened as well and businesses offering food and entertainment are allowed to operate, as long as they follow the COVID-19 emergency measures, which include a curfew between 10.30 pm and 4 am.
At a glance, the government appears to be acting with an abundance of caution, but it obviously is not working. On November 21, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony confirmed that at least 32 students tested positive for COVID-19 since the reopening of schools. On November 23, the National COVID-19 Task Force Secretariat (NCTFS) said it had to warn 42 businesses about breaching the emergency measures. The NCTFS was also forced to defend itself against the umbrage of the Private Sector Commis-sion (PSC), which accused the task force of acting outside of its mandate when it warned the Palm Court Restaurant and Bar to follow emergency procedures or risk closure.
In a missive that could only be seen as irresponsible the PSC ranted that “hundreds of businesses operate in a similar manner to that of Palm Court. Hence, this action would appear to be biased and discriminatory and the letter should be withdrawn forthwith.” The message here seems to be the devil take the hindmost.
One recognises that COVID-19 has been terrible for the economy and businesses are hurting, but so is everyone else, particularly those who have been infected and are desperately ill, or have family, relatives and friends who have died. The let us make money to the detriment of everything else attitude is callous and irresponsible. Surely we do not want to end up with infections and fatalities that cripple the modest facilities we have.
