PRIME Minister Brigadier (Rt’d) Mark Phillips has said that as Guyana continues to battle the COVID-19 epidemic, the government of the day is fully committed to ensuring that it “flattens the curve” and minimises the spread of the virus.
Speaking Sunday on ‘Government in Focus’, aired regularly on State-run National Communications Network (NCN), the prime minister noted that there’s a significant amount of goodwill out there towards Guyana, both here at home as well as abroad, in terms of aiding in slowing the spread of the dreaded coronavirus.

He said that one of the major plans the government has in mind for dealing with the outbreak, moving forward, is working to ensure that the Task Force is equipped with adequate testing kits as well as Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) for frontline workers, so as to ensure that they stay safe as they continue to serve the people of Guyana.

The Prime Minister said that since taking control of the National COVID-19 Task Force (NCTF), he’s begun restructuring the way the organisation functions, in that it now operates on a three-tier system so as to allow the agency to be more responsive in ensuring that the needs of the people are met. Phillips explained that one team is responsible for coordinating and liaising with the donors and international partners in terms of seeking support through organisations like PAHO, CARICOM, and the UNDP.

The two other arms, these being the medical response and economic and social arms, he said, are tasked with working along with a small team that serves as a secretariat of sorts to coordinate them, and that team works out of the Ministry of Health.
“Within our first week,” the PM said, “we went through an organisational restructuring, and because we were able to come up with a more sustainable way to function, we were able to start delivery, both on the medical side and on the economic and social side, where we are giving out hampers and sanitation supplies, masks and other resources to the people of Guyana.”

BETTER STRATEGY
He went on to say that since coming up with a better modus operandi for dealing with the pandemic, the NCTF has been able to reach out and provide relief to citizens in Regions Eight (Potaro-Siparuni) and Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo), both of which were initially regarded as COVID-19 ‘hotspots’ and were somewhat closed off from accessing resources during this period. He said that in the weeks ahead, it is Task Force’s intention to render further assistance to some “so-called COVID-19 hotspots” in Regions One (Barima-Waini), Seven (Cuyuni-Mazaruni), Eight and Nine.
He said that the Task Force has since reached out to several Ministries of the Government, as well as the Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Guyana Police Force (GPF), and Guyana Forestry Commission (GFC), and they are all working together and utilizing their resources to curb the spread of the virus through enforcing the COVID-19 guidelines.

He said that the government is well aware that although persons may not have physically contracted the virus, they are still affected by it in a major way, in the sense that businesses and persons in the private sector have not been to operate at their normal rate. He went on to explain that while many of those in the public sector may not necessarily be feeling the economic impact of the pandemic, those who work in the private sector are largely affected.

He said that this is one of the considerations that led to the decision to have the curfew extended to 21:00hrs. And in reinforcing the government’s commitment to ensuring that the COVID-19 curve is flattened, the prime minister drew reference to the Public Service guideline of operating with 50% of the staff on a rotatory basis. He stated that once the business community continues to follow the guidelines for operation, they can continue to operate with some level of normalcy.
Touching on some of the plans he has in train for the Ministry of Telecommunications and the Civil Defence Commission (CDC), both of which agencies come under the Office of the Prime Minister, he said that he intends to reach not just communities on the Coastland but those in the Hinterland as well, through the development of ICT hubs, in an effort to facilitate easier access to information as well as communication throughout the length and breadth of the country.
He also spoke of his intention to take a look at the structure of the CDC and its disaster response preparedness, stating that his proposal for a budget is being tweaked to support the relief of persons during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as to equip it to ensure that it is ready for any other national disaster, should one arise.