Only four COVID-19 press engagements held in past five months

Jul 20, 2020 News

From March to July, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) and the COVID-19 National Task Force (NCTF), have both conducted only four engagements with the members of the media on issues relating to the novel coronavirus.
Guyana recorded its first COVID-19 case and first death in March. The victim, Ratna Baboolall, said to be in her 50s and suffering from underlying conditions, was pronounced dead on the morning of March 11 at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

Following her death, the newly established Ministerial Task Force had conducted a virtual press conference on March 17. This task force, established by the incumbent President David Granger, comprises of Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo, who is the head, and includes Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence; Minister of Education, Dr. Nicolette Henry; Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan; Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan; Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams SC; Minister of Public Infrastructure, David Patterson; Minister of Finance, Winston Jordan and Minister of Citizenship, Winston Felix.

De facto Minister of Health, Volda Lawrence (left) and Head of the National COVID-19 Task Force, Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo

The NCTF, through its head Nagamootoo had subsequently conducted two virtual engagements, one on April 4 and the other on April 16. However, these virtual press conferences — which included but were not limited to information on beefing up the country’s security at entry ports, what campaigns would be launched to enforce the COVID-19 restrictions and regulations, the closure of schools, special approved flights among other key issues — had ceased when the former Director-General of the Ministry of the Presidency (MoTP), Joseph Harmon, had assumed the position of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the COVID-19 task force on April 24. At the time, the Health Ministry had promised to conduct daily updates at noon with the media, but it was quickly scrapped and morphed into a recorded video featuring the Minister of Health; the Chief Medical Officer, Shamdeo Persaud; or the Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Dr.Karen Gordon-Boyle. These are aired between the hours of 03:00-06:00 PM, and were broadcast via the National Communications Network (NCN) television and the Health Ministry’s Facebook page. This format does not provide the option for the media, or even the citizens, to ask pressing questions. On days when the videos are not released, a basic daily situational info-graphic report is published.
To compound these issues, calls made out to the head of the NCTF and the Health Minister have continuously gone unanswered. No responses were provided for those calls and emails which have also been dispatched to other health officials and members of the NTCF. In fact, the only employee who answers calls is the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Health Ministry, Terrence Esseboom. Quite often, he never has information to share and usually directs members of the media to speak with his superiors.
At the moment, the media, and by extension the country rely on the situational reports produced by the ministry, which can go days without being published, and in some cases, the data is regurgitated from prior days.
This is in stark contrast to frequent press conferences that are held in other Caribbean territories, conducted by the health officials, and where a detailed breakdown of the cases is provided to the public. Guyana has recorded 19 deaths thus far, with over 300 confirmed cases.