— essential workers must show identification
— calls to COVID-19 hotline must be justifiable
ON Monday, May 4, health workers in Guyana will be receiving preferential treatment, when conducting certain business anywhere in the country.
This is one of the newest additions to the COVID-19 Emergency Measures, put in place by the government, which have recently been extended to June 3, 2020.
According to the measures, paragraph 8: “Where a healthcare worker has to do business in a service mentioned in paragraph 6 (2) (a), (b), (c) or (d), the worker shall not join a line but shall be given preferential treatment on submission of proof of identification.”
The services which apply to such treatment include: (a) banks and other financial institutions such as remittance services; (b) markets, supermarkets, fruit and vegetable stalls, bulk food stores and neighbourhood grocery shops; (c) food services and restaurants only for delivery, drive-thru and take away services and (d) gas stations.
These are also services which are allowed to operate between 06:00 and 15:00 hours. However, the key to receiving such preferential treatment is linked to the presentation of one’s occupation identification.
In another area, the updated measures have also catered to the presentation of identification to police officers to verify persons authorized to be in conduct of an essential service.
Paragraph 7 states: “Any person permitted to go to work under this Notice shall have, in his or her possession, an official identification document and official work identification document or some proof of workplace, and shall produce documents or proof of workplace, if requested to do so by a member of the Police Force.”
Recently, the Police Force has upped its efforts in deterring perpetrators of the COVID-19 measures for their own safety and the safety of others.
Just on Wednesday, an East Bank Demerara (EBD) resident was sentenced to stand for one hour in the sun displaying a ‘curfew notice’ by the Diamond/Golden Grove Magistrate’s Court, after he breached the current curfew.
In the past week, the members of the Guyana Police Force were seen arresting persons along Sheriff Street who breached the 6pm-6am curfew.
Another means by which a person can face penalty, is if he/she calls a COVID-19 hotline number “without justifiable reason”. This is also an updated measure visible at paragraph 14.
Following Guyana’s first confirmed case of coronavirus, the Ministry of Public Health had set up COVID-19 hotlines so that members of the public can contact health officials to report possible cases of the virus.
However, this month, the Guyana Chronicle reported that, since the hotlines were set up, operators have been receiving prank calls making the job of the hotline operators and health officials difficult.
The idle acts have made it difficult for operators to separate persons who are truly sick, from people who are just calling to see if the hotline is working or to report persons who they think are sick without providing the necessary data required to trace that person. As of April 17, there were over 2,000 calls placed to hotlines countrywide.
On the matter of testing, specific guidelines have been added to the measures under a new paragraph numbered 13 which speaks to ‘Testing for the Coronavirus’.
It mandates: “Where any private medical laboratory tests any persons for Coronavirus and the result of the test is positive, the private medical laboratory shall immediately report and forward the name and the address of the person and the result of the test to the Director of the Health Emergency Operations Centre.”
The paragraph also stipulates that where any person has been tested positive for coronavirus that person shall: (a) comply with all applicable directions given and requirements imposed by the Health Emergency Operations Centre and (b) provide information to the Health Emergency Operations Centre about any individual with whom the person may have had contact, at least 14 days before testing positive for coronavirus.
This is important as, although persons who may have been in contact with a COVID-19 positive patient may not feel direly ill, persons must be reminded that the incubation period ranges from 1-14 days and persons can show mild symptoms or be altogether asymptomatic.
This does not mean that a person carrying the virus, unknown to himself/herself, may not be able to infect other persons and critically endanger lives.
