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Nov 07, 2020 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
Kaieteur News – It may not be too late to try to save Christmas. A two-week total lockdown with strong enforcement may do the trick. Unless that happens, the Grinch called coronavirus is going to steal Christmas.
Over the past two days alone, there were 148 new cases. In all likelihood, at least seven of these persons are going to die. This is according to the law of probability. At least seven of the persons infected over the past two days are likely to die.
This is what the country is facing while the government continues with its ill-crafted measures to control the pandemic. It is now totally out of control.
Two persons died yesterday. One of the persons who died cannot be considered an elderly. But elderly people have a right to life too and should not be left to drop dead like flies.
One of the persons who died yesterday was a 74-year-old woman. Eleven members of her family have tested positive. They most likely are among the 52 new cases from Region Four which were recorded yesterday.
The 74-year-old woman died next to her daughter who is also severely ill. The daughter must be thanked for making the details public as to awaken Guyanese to the reality of what is taking place within the society with this pandemic.
There should be no shame in anyone admitting that one of their relatives died from the pandemic. The virus is not a curse. It is an infection like the flu, except that it is 10 times more contagious. In fact, one of the explanations which is now being offered as contributing to the massive increases in infections has to do with the virus mutating and spreading far more easily than in earlier this year.
If you look at the number of active cases in Guyana, it was coming down slowly up to a few days ago. But it would have risen over the past few days. However, the rate of decline is not a hopeful sign. If the decline in active cases, as of a few days ago, continues, it will still take until next April to bring the virus under control in Guyana. And that is assuming there is no second or third surge – something which cannot be ruled out, not when we are dealing with these brilliant epidemiologists who are advising the government.
By then a vaccine may be available. But not in Guyana. The vaccine was supposed to be ready by September. It was not. Then we were told it may have been ready just before the US elections. That date has been pushed back. News then came that it would be ready for December. This was then amended to read that it will be ready just before Christmas. Now we are told there is only a small chance of this happening.
It is going to take eight weeks for the data to be assessed in relation to one of the front-running vaccines. This means we are looking at January at the earliest for a vaccine. And the rich countries have the first call. Guyanese probably will not receive any jabs until next April the earliest. By that time, at the rate things are going, more than 600 persons are going to die.
It is therefore time for a lockdown. A two-week lockdown with only essentials – electricity, water, medical services, transportation and supermarkets may do the trick. Markets and restaurants should be closed since these are heavily trafficked facilities. Two weeks not two months.
In the meantime, those who have lost loved ones have a moral duty to help to create greater public consciousness about the need to suppress the spread of the virus. They should not shy away from talking to the press about the circumstances which led to the deaths of their loved ones.
Who knows, perhaps, when this happens, people will come to realize that it is not just persons with underlying conditions who are dying but also other persons. They may also realize that many of the elderly who are dying are persons who were infected by others, including in their own households.
Unless there is a lockdown now for two weeks, Christmas will be one sad event in the country. Is that what we want?
(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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