No need to panic, but don’t become complacent

Mar 01, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Guyanese must not panic over the potential of a coronavirus outbreak. But they must not become complacent either.
The world is facing a coronavirus pandemic. The World Health Organization (WHO), while contending that the situation with the COVID-19 coronavirus has not yet reached pandemic propositions, says it is heading in that direction.
The WHO has called for countries to be in a state of preparedness. As at last week, the virus had spread to more than 50 countries, a most worrying development. The WHO is reporting that its spread is now more rapid in other countries than it is in China where the virus first started. The WHO has said that the world should do more to begin preparing for a pandemic, since the world is not yet in a state of readiness for a pandemic.
In January of this year, the Guyanese health authorities said that they were prepared. But this assessment is highly questionable, since PAHO one month later, on the 19th February, said that it was only then that Guyana was in a position to test for the virus. The Ministry of Health needs to explain how the country could have been prepared for the virus in January, when the means to test for the virus was not yet available locally until one month later.
In another section of the media, it is now being reported that a total of 54 persons were being monitored since January 18. These persons were being monitored because they came from high-risk countries. Of this number, 38 have been cleared, with 18 still being monitored.
The Ministry of Health probably did not wish to create a panic by announcing, earlier, that persons were being monitored. But they ought to at least now indicate what form this monitoring is taking. Are these persons being asked to be confined in their homes? And if so, what is being done to monitor also, their contact with other persons?
Guyanese should not panic, but the local health authorities should be put immediately in emergency mode. They should establish facilities for quarantining persons who are confirmed to have the virus, when such cases arise. You cannot wait until a confirmed case arises before you begin to establish the isolation facilities.
Guyana does not have the health facilities to deal with an outbreak. Coronavirus patients cannot be isolated in hospitals. This will only increase the spread to other patients. The local health authorities should therefore dismiss this notion that they can treat infected persons within the hospitals; that would be suicidal.
China has done an extraordinary job in limiting the spread. Within days of the outbreak, China built a special hospital of 1,000 beds. It completed the job in 9 days. And also immediately another special hospital with 1,500 beds was built.
Guyana, however, is claiming that it will treat cases at the Georgetown Public Hospital, Diamond Diagnostic Centre and West Demerara Hospital. This is a hare-brained idea. This is extremely high-risk. What should be happening, is that one of the abandoned military bases in Guyana should be used to build a special hospital to isolate confirmed cases.
Guyana’s surveillance systems are highly suspect. We are told that eight medexes have been deployed to the port health authorities. This is way too inadequate. We need far more, and we need persons to test every single passenger arriving in the country. Eight medexes is grossly insufficient.
The health authorities have dropped the ball. They should pick it up and get going as quickly as possible to establish appropriate isolation hospitals and to have the staff in place to deal with any possible outbreak.
Health authorities around the world have been urging persons to do certain things to reduce the spread. These include constant washing and sanitising of hands. Yet, if you walk around most government and private offices, you do not see any urgency to put in dispensers to allow for persons to sanitise their hands. This needs to be done, especially in our schools.
Despite this, there is still no reason for Guyanese to panic. It is not clear as yet just how the spread of this virus reacts in tropical conditions. The mortality rate is below 2% and the majority of the infected persons exhibit only mild symptoms. The high-risk group is the elderly, whose immune systems may be compromised.
It is time for the Ministry of Health to do more. Not enough has been done. It should heed the warning of the WHO!

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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