Several private sector bodies have welcomed the Government of Guyana’s lifting of the national curfew that was in place since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the country to protect citizens and curb the spread.
However, President Dr Irfaan Ali on Thursday said that the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic has evolved over the past two years and curfew restrictions are no longer proven to be effective. To this end, he instructed Prime Minister Brig. (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, who is the Head of the National COVID-19 Task Force, to review the curfew.
The Task Force subsequently announced on Friday that the curfew was lifted with immediate effect.
Below are the reactions from some major private sectors on this:
PSC welcomes decision to lift National Curfew
The Private Sector Commission (PSC) welcomes the decision taken by the National COVID-19 Taskforce on Friday, February 11, 2022, to lift the National Curfew with immediate effect.
The Commission recognizes the consistent reduction in COVID-19 cases over the past weeks and believes that Guyana is well on its way to achieving herd immunity.
The PSC continues to urge businesses to adhere to the COVID-19 measures in place to safeguard against the virus and reminds that vaccination remains our top protection against all variants of COVID-19 and a timely booster dose maximizes protection against the virus.
GMSA WELCOMES AMENDMENTS TO THE COVID-19 MEASURES
Pursuant to the advisory issued today, regarding the amendments to the COVID-19 emergency measures (No 1 of 2022), the GMSA welcomes this provision by the National COVID-19 task force. The Government of Guyana through this task force has been monitoring and evaluating the impact of the pandemic in Guyana, thus resulting in the lift of the National Curfew at this time. We support this provision since worldwide trends
have pointed to vaccination coupled with responsible behaviours is considered to be the most effective way to fight this pandemic rather than lockdowns.
The GMSA also uses this opportunity to encourage all manufacturing and services oraganizations, and furthermore the entire business community to be cognizant of their actions in the elimination of the COVID-19 pandemic. We urge the Citizens of Guyana to be responsible in their actions and behaviours going forward and to become vaccinated and to get booster shots where applicable so that we can curb the spread of this disease.
Furthermore, we remind the general public to continue hand washing, using face masks and following all related COVID-19 protocols.
Palm Court welcomes end to curfew
We the Management of Palm Court, welcome the Governments decision to bring an end to the Emergency COVID-19 curfew with immediate effect.
We believe that this decision is very timely. Since their election into office, the government has managed to tackle the spread of the deadly virus where adequate interventions were made to address both the economic impact on the health implications.
It is worthwhile to note that the tourism entertainment and hospitality sector has been the most badly affected globally and in Guyana resulting in hundreds of businesses and employees being placed on the bread line.
With more than half the population fully vaccinated, this decision will allow/make way for the safe reopening of businesses as well as create employment opportunities for persons in addition to building the economy.
Once again we would like to thank the government and the COVID-19 taskforce for their diligence and the recently updated measures.
We wish to commend the government for the manner in which they manage to contain the impacts of the deadly COVID-19 virus.
