Consider relief for COVID victims

Sep 26, 2021 Letters

Dear Editor,

The state has given flood relief grants to affected households and stimulus grants to all families plus educational grants, pension grants, and several other handout outs. May I suggest that government considers giving grant to “uninsured” victims or families of those infected and or who died from COVID-19. COVID within a family may prevent the breadwinner from earning an income, not totally dissimilar to how the flood prevented farmers from earning an income. Some households lost the sole breadwinner to COVID-19. A grant of say $25K would help alleviate difficulties in a household in the short-term.
In the US and other developed countries, grants are not provided to victims of COVID. However, in the US, the government provides a funeral grant to families of up to US$10K upon submission of the necessary documents. Government and NGOs have also been doling out the equivalent of food hampers including hot meals on a regular basis. No one is excluded. For the really needy or affected, hot meals are delivered at home for free.
A token grant cannot address a family’s financial needs during the pandemic, but it nevertheless provides immediate succour to families that have been affected by a loss of income of breadwinners and or other productive members. The current third wave of the pandemic is raging across the country. No other scourge in living memory has taken such a huge a toll of 700 dead and over 30K infected in 18 months. The proposed ex gratia outlay would be small in the coming budget but it would help many families.
As an aside, to mitigate future natural disasters (like flooding) and pandemics, government should set up risk insurance for businesses and workers as is done in developed countries. Workers in the US and in developed countries (including their overseas territories like in the Caribbean) received some 60 percent of their income as a result of loss of jobs over the last 18 months. In the US, the payments come from the government’s unemployed insurance fund. A similar fund can be considered for poor countries like Guyana.

Yours faithfully,
Vishnu Bisram

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