IN his daily COVID-19 briefing, on Tuesday, Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony lauded the work of the COVID-19 Task Force in ensuring public gatherings were deterred during the Christmas weekend, as the threat of the Omicron COVID-19 variant looms.

“We want to keep people safe. It’s not that we want to be a party Grinch, but we really want to keep people safe, and the only way we can do that is to restrict how many people can be in a gathering.

“And preferably, we will want to see that people are fully vaccinated,” Dr Anthony explained as he said the Task Force will continue its work throughout the festive season.

He stressed that the Omicron variant is highly transmissible, and is quickly becoming the most dominant COVID-19 variant around the world.

The Health Minister said while there are some persons who think the Omicron variant is a milder form of the COVID-19 virus, it is evident throughout the world that unvaccinated persons are still becoming sick and hospitalized.

This resulted in a strain in the public health systems of some countries with less attention being paid to some patients, causing them to die. Dr Anthony does not want a replication of this in Guyana.

Dr Anthony called for more responsibility among the population while encouraging more persons to get vaccinated, and also to get booster shots when the time comes.