Start with the markets

Mar 25, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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Kaieteur News – At around 16:40hrs (4:40 pm) yesterday, two traffic ranks, this time arriving on a motorcycle, were again preying on motorists at the junction of New Garden and Church Streets. It is hard to imagine with all the logjam of traffic during peak hours and the difficulties motorists have in exiting the city for their homes, that this is the efficacy with which the traffic authorities are deploying their ranks during rush hour.
As if this was not stressful enough, the National Communications Network (NCN) began announcing, from as early as 17:40 hrs (5.40 pm), that there will be an announcement by the President of the Republic. The announcement was scheduled for 17:45 hrs (5:45 pm), according to NCN.
Normal programming was interrupted by the airing of patriotic songs. This created anxieties that this announcement was indeed very important.
Speculation was rife about just what the President would announce. My neighbour looked through her window and shouted across our fence, “I hope you stock up on groceries. It looks as if the President will announce a lockdown.”
It seemed a distinct possibility. After all, there has been a massive spike in cases in recent weeks. The number of active cases has more than doubled and it is being reported that more than 50 persons have been hospitalised.
The logical thing to do would have been to revert to the old curfew hours, impose a two-week closure of non-essential businesses, encourage workers to work from home and restrict all public gatherings, stop all outdoor events over the Phagwah and Easter weekends.
But it was always going to be much to ask a government to do these things. The government has shown no compunction in refusing to do anything which would hurt the profit line of its friends in the business community. Nonetheless, there was a sense that the President would announce some form of restrictions, at least for the next two holiday weekends.
The scheduled time for the announcement passed without any indication as to when it would commence. The NCN switched to its normal programming. The daily newscast began some 12 minutes late. And it was not until another half an hour later that the newscast was interrupted to facilitate the special address by the President.
The President’s address was a damp squib. It was a long boring diatribe about the plans for the rollout of the vaccination. It appears as if the government is now joining forces with the Guyana Defence Force and regional COVID-19 Task Forces to expand vaccination to 10,000 jabs per day.
The government has missed the mark. The issue is not the rate of vaccination. Even though there is need for more vaccination sites, the problem is that the vaccination rate has been slow because persons have not been responding, as expected, to the campaign. There is a high-level of vaccine hesitancy and this will hurt any attempt at achieving herd immunity.
The President is hoping to expand the rate of vaccination to 10,000 jabs per day so that herd immunity can be achieved quickly. The President needs to be better advised about herd immunity. Medical professionals have indicated that for herd immunity at least 80 percent of the population would need to be immunised.
This is impossible given that the vaccines are not recommended for persons below the age of 18. More than 35 percent of the population is below the age of 18. So, how is herd immunity going to be achieved when 35 percent of the population will not be vaccinated? This is one of the drawbacks of having too young a population.
It is for this reason that this column has been consistently insisting that vaccination alone will not halt the local coronavirus epidemic. Vaccination will help reduce deaths providing that everyone in the high-risk categories are vaccinated. But with two weeks of vaccination already completed, only 25,000 persons have been immunised. Given that the Minister has indicated that there were approximately 22,000 health workers, the numbers vaccinated so far has been a major disappointment.
Increasing the number of stations administering the ‘jab’ will not necessarily result in a corresponding reduction in the number of infections or deaths. Vaccination and social restrictions have to be combined.
The President has indicated that there will be stronger enforcement and that efforts will be made to ensure that businesses are complying with the regulations. He has instructed that charges be filed against business defaulters. This is a positive step.
However it is necessary for a more strategic approach. The authorities are likely to concentrate their efforts at ensuring that certain ‘haunts’ are better policed. It is in our markets where buyers and sellers are consistently flouting the laws in relation to the wearing of masks. This is where greater efforts at enforcement are needed.
A positive step would be for the authorities to cordon off all markets and to ensure that anyone entering and leaving these precincts are wearing masks and are doing so properly. This would make a world difference.

(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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