As the country still grapples with COVID-19, workers continue to remain isolated after being exposed to someone that is positive. This is mandated by the COVID-19 Measures set out by the Government.
However, not all of the workers continue to be honest with their employers. Some have been exploiting the system for an extra day off.
This is according to the Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Antony, who said that over time the Ministry has been receiving reports of workers exploiting the system. This poses a problem to the work environment.
“There are reports of persons, maybe every two weeks, reporting that they have become exposed to somebody. There is a pattern. It’s obvious that the employee or person might just want days off rather than being genuinely sick with COVID.”
As part of the COVID-19 protocol, persons who have symptoms or feel that they have been exposed to some with the virus are expected to self-quarantine themselves. A COVID-19 PCR test is done within five days.
When tested, that individual is expected to return to self-quarantine until their results are ready. “Pending the return of the results, you are expected to stay in self-quarantine when positive or return to work if negative.”
This system has been straightforward for over a year. But to the extent of clearly understanding the system and the loopholes, workers have gone on to exploit it.
According to the Minister of Health, the responsibility now rests on the shoulders of the employers to do their checks and balances and in the end create some policies to curb this type of behavior.
“We have to balance these two things and I guess different workplaces will have to get policies where they can verify these reports from their employees,” Minister Anthony added.
In Guyana now, some 2,112 persons are currently infected with Covid-19, with 83 of them being new cases over the past 24 hours. There are also 55 persons that are being treated in hospitals, 38 of whom are at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, with 20 of them in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The ministry is also monitoring Region Three that has some 820 cases; Region Four, 764 cases; Region Six with 232 and Region Ten with 93 cases.
Currently, 393,355 adults have already taken the first dose of a COVID vaccine, with 264,851 of them being fully vaccinated.
For adolescents, 28,501 persons have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 19,693 are fully vaccinated.
