JUST over a year after the deadly novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic struck Guyana, putting a brake on almost all of the productive sectors, Guyana today has come a long way in terms of putting systems in place to tackle the virus.
It should be noted that the coronavirus came at a time when the country was going through a crisis of a different kind — the attempts by elements at the Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) – to rig the March 2, 2020 elections in favour of the then APNU+AFC Government.
At the time the five long months of elections standoff was over and democracy finally prevailed, the new government, on assuming office, was met with the gigantic task on bringing COVID-19 under control.

The task at hand is aptly described as gigantic because when it assumed power, very limited testing was done, the country had just a few ventilators and the COVID-19 Hospital at Liliendaal, in which over a $1 billion was spent to remodel, was just little more than a shell.
Businesses were reeling from the restrictions in place to curb the spread of the virus, many persons lost their jobs and production understandably took a significant hit.
There were hardly any assistance from the then APNU+AFC Government for the suffering citizenry and members of the business community.
Today, though the virus remains a major challenge, things are far from the bleak state that stared the nation in the face some eight months ago.
During the past eight months, significant work has been done to return the country to some level of normalcy while battling the pandemic.

Government has rolled out the $25,000 relief cash grant programme for households; allocated $750 million to support rolling out of COVID-19 vaccines; $51 million in grants from Small Business Bureau (SBB); $20 billion in annualised benefits from the 2020 Emergency Budget measures; $60 billion in annualised benefits from 2021 National Budget measures; $80 million in the 2021 budget for the training of women; given multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fund for Amerindian villages; intensified procurement of Personal and Protective Equipment (PPEs) and COVID-19 tests; engaged in countrywide distribution of education booklets; and ease restrictions on businesses and travel to ‘breathe life’ into the economy and particularly ailing sectors.
Though these measures are significant in terms of relief for citizens and the business community, the government has embarked on a more direct strategy against the coronavirus — and that is – vaccination.

A few weeks ago, vaccination of frontline healthcare workers began and within a short space of time, vaccination of the elderly commenced, and to date, more than 25,000 persons have been vaccinated. It was most refreshing to hear the announcement by President, Dr. Irfaan Ali, on Wednesday, that vaccination will commence for persons 40 years and older as early as next week.
Central to the notable expansion of the vaccination programme, is the aim to have at least 10,000 persons vaccinated each day to ensure Guyana achieves herd immunity, which was pointed out by the President in his address to the nation on Wednesday.

In the fight against COVID-19, a number of Guyana’s bilateral partners have stepped forward and offered their support, and among them are China and more notably, India.And while Guyana is thankful for the support of these friendly nations in the fight against the deadly pandemic which has claimed the lives of over 220 Guyanese, it is very important that everyone takes all the necessary precautions to avoid contracting and spreading the virus. Here some valuable lessons could be learnt from ‘Deep South’ Rupununi which is COVID-free amid the countrywide spread of the virus. But what have they done differently from others? The answer is simple: community members wear their face masks, constantly wash their hands and maintain an appropriate social distance. They even went as far as to erect a gate to their community to safeguard against contracting the novel coronavirus.