ARE WE PREPARED?

Mar 14, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Persons have expressed frustration at not being able to obtain face masks. Others have complained about the spike in prices for hand sanitizers. These things should have been distributed free of cost to the population even before the first case was registered.
It was always felt that it was not whether Guyana would register a positive case for the coronavirus, but when. As it is, Guyana registered its first case this week.
According to the country’s public health authorities, tests done locally on a patient who died, came back positive for the coronavirus (COVID-19). There is an existing protocol for test results to be confirmed regionally, and it is hoped that the sample from the dead patient will be sent overseas to confirm the local laboratory’s findings.
This is not a vote of no-confidence in the capabilities of the local laboratory but rather, is a control measure, as given the problems which have emerged with testing in other countries, it is necessary that there be a second confirmation test of this first case.
Guyana is not prepared for an epidemic. We have had one case so far and already more than fourteen medical professionals had to be quarantined. Imagine what is going to happen to our doctors and nurses if we have ten more cases.
There are no special hospitals for patients. They have to be hospitalised at the public hospitals, thereby increasing the risk of the spread of the virus. The government should have already identified a temporary location and converted it into a hospital for coronavirus patients, so as to separate them from the rest of the hospital population. This has not been done.
There are not enough ventilators in the public health systems should there is a massive increase in the number of cases. This means that those most in need of assistance would not be able to have that assistance.
The Ministry of Health continues to emphasize sanitization. But what they should be placing more emphasis on is containment, by immediately closing the country’s ports.
On the weekend, prior to the elections, the government closed the ‘backtrack’ route between Suriname and Guyana because of fears of persons from Europe. But that made little sense, because foreigners rarely use that crossing. The ‘backtrack’ route was closed, but the airports were at the same time letting thousands of persons into the country.
Yesterday, Suriname had its first case of the virus, and it has moved swiftly to close all ports of entry, including with Guyana. It also closed its airspace at midnight. That country is taking no chances.
Guyana, in the meantime, is yet to close all its ports. This delay can be costly.
If the coronavirus gets into our school system, it will spread rapidly. The Ministry of Education has therefore done the right thing and closed schools for two weeks. This is the correct approach, and one of the main ways in limiting the spread of the virus, even though it has been established that there are no fatalities of children between the ages of 0-9 years. And the adolescent fatality rate is also low.
The high risk group is persons aged 70 years and older, and therefore there has to be a national strategy to protect the older members of the population, including those in nursing care and elderly homes.
The other high risk group is persons with pre-existing conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, respiratory diseases and terminal illnesses. There has to be special interventions made for these persons.
The private sector has to be brought on board. Businesses need to limit the exposure of their staff. Those which can operate on a skeleton staff should be encouraged to do so or to have a shift system, so that only a percentage of staff is present at the workplace at any one time.
Containment is the best approach. China has had remarkable success in a short period of time in containing the virus. The number of new cases in that country is now less than a dozen, despite more than 80,000 persons being infected there. Guyana should adopt the same rigid strategy: close the borders and encourage people to self-isolate at home.

(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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