The Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony is now claiming that many of the events hosted during the Mashramani observances were not given approval by the National COVID-19 Task Force.
While he did not single out any specific events, most of the big events hosted during the Mashramani celebrations were co-sponsored and promoted by the Ministry of Culture following meetings with the National Task Force.
Questioned today about what appears to be a double standard by the authorities in shutting down some events while allowing others to continue, the Health Minister said most of the events were not granted any approval by the COVID-19 Task Force.
“Unfortunately, I think some of the events that took place over the last week, I don’t think they got permission of the Task Force, so, you need to check that”, the Health Minister claimed.
There were concerns that many of the events were allowed to openly breach the COVID-19 regulations. In many cases, persons were seen not wearing masks and there was no physical distancing. However, some of the events required patrons to provide proof of vaccination against COVID-19.
“We have rules and we have been articulating them because for us, if we are going to bring down those numbers, the only way we can do that is all of us have to behave responsibly and that responsible behaviour means we got to use our mask, we have to keep distance, get vaccinated and things like that. That’s very important. Outside of that, then if we don’t do that we can easily see an increase in cases.”
The Minister of Health added that even with the rules in place, persons also have to play a greater role in taking care of their health and protecting themselves against COVID-19.
Just after the Christmas holidays, Guyana saw its biggest surge in COVID-19 cases. The number of new cases has been on the decline over the past month, but Health Officials remain worried that with the large public events hosted, another wave of new cases could be on the horizon
You must be logged in to post a comment Login