IN accordance with the COVID-19 Emergency Measures published in the Official Gazette, there is an onus on businesses to participate in the fight against COVID-19 by ensuring visitors to their premises produce proof of vaccination prior to being able to enter same, yet this has not yet fully materialised in the country.

As of September, 2021, Paragraph 17(1) of the COVID-19 Emergency Measures noted that any person who wishes to enter a public building, which has been defined as any building to which the public has lawful access, including both publicly and privately owned buildings, shall be vaccinated.

Enforcement of the measure would entail businesses asking for proof of vaccination as well as corresponding proof of identification prior to patrons being granted access to their establishment; however, most businesses have been negligent in executing the regulation.

Cognisant of this, Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, in his COVID-19 update with the Department of Public Information on Monday, has called for businesses to play a greater role to ensure the measures are complied with, which will in turn help to stymie the deadly repercussions of the novel coronavirus.

“I think it’s important if we get the private sector, the business owners, if everybody plays their part, we are going to have a safer Guyana but we need everybody to get involved,” Dr. Anthony said.

“They are still too many persons, too many entities that are not playing that role, and I really want to appeal to them, if they are not doing so if they can put the measures in place to make sure that they are one of the compliant businesses,” he added.

MORAL SUASION
Speaking to the Guyana Chronicle via telephone on Monday evening, Dr. Anthony said the Ministry is currently using moral suasion to give businesses a chance to enforce the regulations; however, if that method does not work then errant businesses will be met with the full force of the law.

“If you don’t abide by the Order, there are offences which are in the Order and if we want we can prosecute, but, at this stage, we want to encourage people to do the right thing and once they do that I think the country will be safer,” he said.

In accordance with Section 20 (1) of the COVID-19 Emergency Measures, any person who breaches the regulations commits an offence under Section 152 of the Public Health Ordinance and is liable, on summary conviction, to the penalty provided under that section.

Further, Section 20 (2) enables the Minister of Health to issue a written warning to businesses which are non-compliant with the regulations, and, where, after being warned, the business remains non-compliant, the minister can suspend the operator’s business for a period of no more than 30 days.

Dr. Anthony disclosed that the National COVID-19 Task force (NCTF) will begin writing to errant businesses that have been identified in breach of the emergency measures to ensure that there is stronger enforcement of the guidelines.

GET VACCINATED
In addition to appealing to the private sector to enforce the COVID-19 regulations, the Health Minister also appealed to the persons who have not yet been administered with their COVID-19 ‘jab’ to be inoculated as soon as possible as vaccines are available for everyone who is eligible.

“From the statistics that are in the newspapers every day, it is really the unvaccinated persons who are affected. We have had a high percentage of deaths among the unvaccinated, so it’s better that you get yourself vaccinated and protected from COVID,” he said.

According to the latest statistics, 361,626 adults or 70.2 per cent of the adult population have received their first dose of one of the COVID-19 vaccines available locally, while 209,506 adults or 57.9 per cent of the population received their second dose.

Additionally, 24,939 persons between the ages of 12 and 18 years have already received their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, representing 34.2 per cent of that population, while 12,762 adolescents or 17.5 per cent of the population received their second shot.

The Ministry of Health has reported that 608,833 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines available locally, namely, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, Sputnik V, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, have been administered thus far. Such consists of both first and second doses.