GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Despite the recent declaration by United States President Joe Biden that the COVID-19 pandemic is over, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony has issued a reminder to Guyanese that it remains a public health emergency here even though the situation is under control.
Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony has urged Guyanese to continue to take precautions as the COVID-19 pandemic is not over.He said people must therefore remain vigilant to protect themselves and their families.
Earlier this week, President Biden declared in an interview aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday that the pandemic was over in that North American country, even though “we’re still doing a lot of work on it”.
However, Minister Anthony encouraged Guyanese to continue to take precautions, noting that it is up to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to make such declarations about the pandemic being over.
“We take a lot of our guidance both from CDC and WHO. The WHO has a special committee responsible for all public health emergencies. That committee is scheduled to meet maybe in a month.
“When that committee meets it will evaluate where we are with the pandemic and then make a decision as to whether we continue in the mode that we are in, meaning that we have a public health emergency,” Dr. Anthony said.
Until then, he insisted, every country must be on alert.
“I do know that President Biden made a statement . . . that he thinks the pandemic is over because of how people are behaving, but in the United States I think they still have lots of challenges because they are averaging, I think, maybe about 400 deaths per day; globally there are about 1600 deaths per day,” he contended.
The Health Minister said people should pay attention to new strains of the virus like the BA2.75 which is more difficult to detect.
The current strains BA4 and BA5 cause milder symptoms for most people, with few having complications.
Dr. Anthony reiterated the importance of getting COVID-19 booster shots, which he said helps the immune system to be better prepared to fight the effects of the disease and prevent complications. But he acknowledged that it remained a challenge to get people to go in for them.
So far, 444,683 persons in Guyana have taken at least a first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while 346,531 have taken a second dose.
