A depressing Christmas awaits us

Dec 18, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Kaieteur News – I want to provide some examples which prove how difficult it is going to be to bring the coronavirus pandemic in Guyana under control. These examples relate to how citizens, on a daily basis, do not practice social distancing.
You go to any hospital in Guyana and you will find chairs less than six feet apart in doctors’ waiting areas. In most cases, persons are seated on benches a mere three to four feet apart. How can the pandemic be brought under control when this is happening right within a facility where one expects the management to know better?
The COVID-19 Task Force needs to be out there in public places monitoring what is taking place. Only then will they be able to grasp the gravity of the problem.
Imagine you are standing in line at the bread shop. The customer in front of you is being served. You stay six feet away but the person behind you is breathing down your neck. You realize that the person is too close to you, so you step forward to give yourself space. The person steps forward refusing to keep a distance. You turn around and ask that person to step back. A ruckus ensues with you being accused of all manner of things.
You visit certain stores. No one is at the door with sanitizing materials. No wash basin is there for you to wash your hands. In some stores, a few bottles of sanitizers are placed on a table. Everyone going into the stores touches one of these bottles – the same bottle you have to hold to sanitize your hands. As you browse around, a store clerk comes to ask you if you need any assistance. She trails you around, not keeping her distance while talking all the time.
At some stores you can walk in without a mask and be sold. This is happening all across the country.
You go to the markets. The distance between you and the vendors is no more than two feet. Yet many sellers are not wearing masks. These are the same persons whom you have to ask about the items being sold and the prices. The COVID-19 Task Force does not seem to be around when these things are happening.
One in every 10 persons in Georgetown is not wearing a mask in public. Extrapolating this to the wider society, it can be estimated that more than 10 percent of the population are not complying with the regulations relating to mask-wearing in public. This 10 percent represent a danger to the rest of society. It is for this reason that even a 70 percent vaccination rate may not suffice for herd immunity.
One in every five persons is wearing a mask incorrectly, either not covering the nose or not covering both the nose and mouth. Some persons are simply wearing the masks so that they can gain entry into certain stores which are strictly implementing the COVID-19 regulations.
There are organizations which are having Christmas socials even though this is strictly prohibited. Dozens of persons are attending funerals. Persons are keeping wake for their deceased relatives and these events see hundreds of persons congregating in close proximity to one another.
Some teenagers are taking advantage of the fact that only certain grades are attending schools. Boys and girls are bracing up against each other inside the school compound and the teachers are nowhere around. When you shout at them, they get annoyed and disrespectful.
How does Guyana expect to beat the pandemic when Guyanese have no idea of what social distancing means? People are leaving their homes everyday either for work or to go shopping. One would have expected that with a pandemic now raging in Europe and America that all going out would have been strictly essential. But not in Guyana. People are going about their business as normal.
And once they do this, you can expect a surge in cases soon. It will be a deadly Christmas and a deadlier New Year. COVID-19 will continue to strike.

(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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