The Ministry of Health regrettably informs that as of June 5, 2021, four more persons who tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) have died. This takes the total number of deaths from the pandemic to 409.
That was the traditional opening of the news report from the Ministry of Health. And the number had increased by five up to Tuesday.
Once more, most of the COVID-19 victims are women. Where a few months ago men outnumbered the women in infections, women have taken the lead.
This may be because women have been faced with the additional burden to keep food on the table. And it is no secret that most of the households in Guyana are single-parent households.
The trend is worrying; the number of deaths is increasing as is the number of infections. For the past two months—April and May—nearly 200 people died of the dreaded coronavirus. Not long after the nation touted April as he deadliest month, up comes May.
Already for the first eight days of this month nearly 20 people have died.
The vaccination campaign is moving ahead. Yes, there is still some hesitancy among a few but for the greater part the wider society having been encouraged, is visiting the various vaccination centres.
No one can fault the reports that the coronavirus is racing beyond control in Guyana. People are no longer dying by the ones and twos; they are dying by the fours. These are terrible times.
Already there has been an impact on economic activity. Many small businesses have closed their doors if not because of COVID guidelines, then because people simply did not have money to support them.
This situation makes the spate of dismissals in the public sector even more worrying. People were already struggling in the face of the pandemic. Now the government is adding to their woes. And to make matters worse, there seems to be no end in sight to the dismissals.
There was the initial batch of some 1,500 from the public sector. Last week Guyana Water Inc announced that it was sending home 157 workers. And this number does not include those whose contracts expired and were not renewed. All told, according to the Chief Executive Officer Shaik Baksh GWI will trim 300 workers.
People are crying; women who are single parents have been sent on the breadline with one month pay in lieu of notice. When things are bad they are really bad.
First came the pandemic. Many had to tuck in; some lost jobs. Then came the widespread sackings that forced people to cope with joblessness and the pandemic. As joblessness increased up comes flooding that has wiped almost everything that some people had. The photographs are telling. There is water to the roofs of houses.
And if the water is so high, imagine what has happened to crop and livestock. People’s entire life’s possessions have disappeared and there is no lifeline on the horizon. Perhaps some may get $25,000 again.
But there is hope. Irfaan Ali has announced that he is going to create 50,000 new jobs. Employment opportunities loom for those who have been sacked. Rest assured that there are not enough people out there to take up the 50,000 new jobs.
Of interest is the pace with which the government and the government departments are moving to dismiss people. Many of these people are at the bottom of the employment scale. They work for the minimum wage or slightly more. They do not really impact the pay roll.
When the Chief Executive Officer of Guyana Water Inc said that by sacking 300 people the company would save $230 million per annum, it turned out that the figure is less than one million per year per individual.
If that sounds a lot then divide by 12. It is about $85,000 per month. And these people who had little to keep themselves alive, are being denied even that. But then again, GWI said that the company was overstaffed.
So in my quiet moments I wonder about a government that cares not whether any of its people go to bed hungry. But that is power—the power over whether people eat or whether they live or die.
