Many Guyanese have expressed the view that the People’s Progressive Party (PPP) regime has left Guyanese to fend for themselves against COVID. “We are on our own in this pandemic,” said one patient who was recently diagnosed with the deadly disease, “The PPP has left us on our own,” the victim lamented. Similar views were expressed by other persons who have become infected as well as the relatives of COVID-19 patients.
Some two weeks ago, the PPP government had announced that PCR testing for the virus would no longer be done at public health centres. As a result of that decision by the regime, if a person wants to be tested for the disease the patient would need to have to be tested at a private institution. Such privately-done tests cost thousands of dollars — money that many persons simply cannot afford. Additionally, there are few options since only four institutions are currently certified to do the test. To make matters worse, there are no certified institutions in any of the hinterland regions. As such, if a hinterland resident becomes ill, that patient must travel to Georgetown — usually at great cost — to be tested.
Mr. Aubrey Norton, the leader of the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) had expressed his concern that the PPP had ulterior motives for stopping public-testing. He said that he was concerned that the PPP wanted to mask the true enormity of the crisis by having fewer persons being found to be COVID-positive. Other observers had expressed similar fears. The concern appears to have been confirmed since the regime has announced that the number of COVID-positive persons has declined sharply, and, as such, the PPP has since taken the decision to abolish all curfew measures that were instituted by the APNU+AFC government.
One political analyst has written that removing the curfew was the ultimate goal of the PPP all along, and the stopping of free PCR testing was just one step towards that goal. The analyst explained that the business-class in Guyana is generally aligned with the PPP, and the PPP’s decisions were designed to benefit the regime’s friends, and to facilitate more money-making. “It is all about making money,” the political observer said. “Sadly, it is the ordinary man who will suffer because of the increased risk of infection due to more parties and crowded events,” the analyst added.
It has been observed, too, that other mitigation measures such as public handwashing, distancing, and masking are not being enforced by the PPP government. The view, therefore, that Guyanese have been abandoned by the PPP to fight for themselves may indeed have merit.
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