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Public’s cooperation, behavioural changes key to stopping spread of COVID-19 – CMO (ag)
Kaieteur News – New acting Chief Medical Officer (CMO), Dr. Narine Singh, is bringing to the table more than three decades of institutional knowledge of Guyana’s healthcare system.
Chief Medical Officer (ag), Dr. Narine Singh.
According to Dr. Singh, coming to the office of CMO in the middle of a pandemic is already challenging but what makes matters worse is the fact that Guyana’s COVID-19 numbers are continuing to climb.
In his capacity as CMO, Dr. Singh will be among the key personnel dealing with the oversight of systems and plans geared at addressing the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis.
As such, he told Kaieteur news that he believes that citizens’ greatest challenge to stopping the spread of the disease, is changing their behaviour.
“It is not a normal time to be CMO, a lot of other health issues are being overshadowed by COVID-19,” Dr. Singh said, noting that cooperation of the public is essential to addressing the issue.
He noted that the Ministry of Health and healthcare workers are playing their part but it’s up to the public to adhere to the rules or “we will keep seeing the numbers climb.”
“People need to stick to the rules and follow the regulations because failure to do so is putting pressure on the system. As you know, this is not just in Guyana but across the world people had to adapt to stop the spread,” said Dr. Singh.
The new CMO told Kaieteur News that he is hoping that the issue can be addressed soon, so that the focus of the healthcare system can shift to other issues which need attention.
“There is so much more to be done to address other issues for instance, Non-Communicable Diseases and how it is responsible for the deaths of a significant number of Guyanese. We are not able to focus on these other areas because COVID-19 is taking up most of our time and resources,” Dr. Singh said, whose portfolio also sees him offering technical support and guidance to key departments within the Health Ministry.
Dr. Singh took the seat of CMO on October 1. He replaced Dr. Shamdeo Persaud who has proceeded on pre-retirement leave.
Dr. Singh, who is part of the establishment, has served in a number of key positions at the Ministry over the years, including the Director of Regional Health Services.
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