…PM says such matters are always difficult to make regulations for

PRESIDENT DAVID GRANGER has decided that the government will not be able to facilitate the air transport of bodies of deceased persons to the country, at this time, due to matters relating to health and finances.

“The President has given a direction that, at this time, it would not be possible to bring back cadavers — bodies of deceased, people who have died overseas,” Prime Minister, Moses Nagamootoo said on Sunday, while a guest on NCN’s programme, Context. The PM said that a number of Guyanese with deceased loved ones have been seeking permission to return the bodies to the country but this is not a service the government can take up at this time.

EMOTIVE, CHALLENGING ISSUE
In explaining the matter, he said: “We’ve set out some broad guidelines regarding that and those who would wish to come back they would have to come back by chartered aircraft for which they pay all expenses and the same would apply for people who may be thinking of bringing back bodies. There are around 81 persons who have died in the United States…and there have been indications that they want to bring their deceased loved ones back home to be buried or cremated in Guyana.”

Nagamootoo said that it is difficult to make regulations or enforcement on such matters that deal with the loss of a loved one and is therefore an emotive issue. Nonetheless, he said that, based on the advice of the competent Public Health and other ministries, the government has suggested that families cremate the bodies of their loved ones and bring back their ashes for a possible ceremonial function to bid farewell.

He said that the country has never been confronted with such cases and under such circumstances but the National COVID-10 Task Force (NCTF) is working with Ministries as a team to coordinate actions to make the right decisions. “Many of these decisions can be exploited by people with limited agenda, political agenda, to create mischief, but the government was not acting in an uneven-handed way dealing with these situations,” he said. “It’s not a Task Force decision to deal with it as a policy matter; once the guidelines are there we’ll have to follow those guidelines and follow the approval of the competent Minister and Ministry based on their technical and medical advice.”

BIG EXPENSE, NO BUDGET
The PM also reminded that Guyana does not have a national 2020 budget due to the elections situation which has resulted in the country being operated on a “shoe string” of finances. To facilitate the payment for air transport of every Guyanese who wished to return home is not feasible. Nagamootoo said that the government has been trying to use whatever resources it can and as creatively as it can to deal with the matter of necessities. “There is very little money around that we can expend in some exercises that are not considered to be very essential at this point in time,” he said.

To put it into context, he said that the government holds currently as a necessity the sending of food hampers to its medical students in Cuba. Just on Friday, the government sent some $4.4M in foodstuff and other essentials to the students on a Caribbean Airlines flight.

There are 75 medical students in the country and 77 packages were sent, while hampers are also being sent to four athletes stranded on the island. It was pointed out that a chartered flight to Cuba costs over $10M. “We consider that to be a necessity,” the PM said. “They have their exams to write, they would be the new batch of doctors who would be coming back to Guyana; you do not want to interrupt their studies and so we felt that we should do everything possible to ensure that they are safe in Cuba and to ensure that they have certain essential supplies that they require.”