Though the Guyana Govenrment has removed majority of the Covid-19 restrictions, Health Minister Dr Frank Anthony revealed that business entities can still enforce certain rules such as mask wearing or handwashing as a means of further protecting against the spread of the virus.
On March 14, the government announced the removal of majority of the restrictions including the lifting of the national curfew and the removal of the mandatory mask-wearing policy.
However, recognising that many people remain unvaccinated against the virus, Dr Anthony says business places are in their rights if they still enforce certain rules.
“Working places, business entities, different spaces, can also decide whether they want certain rules in place and work with those because as you can see, we still have active cases in Guyana…and those persons can very easily infect others so we still have to be cautious because not everybody has been vaccinated and so not everybody can be protected…,” he expressed during today’s update on the Covid situation in the country.
According to the Health Minister, with the Covid guidelines relaxed, it is now up to individual responsibility to ensure a surge in infections does not occur.
“People now have more independence in terms of determining what they do…it’s up to you whether you wanna wear a mask or not…you have to look at your risk and you have to decide whether you want to take precautions. So, there is an individual responsibility,” he contended.
“There are still a lot of unvaccinated people out there and if you’re unvaccinated, there is a chance you can get the most severe form of covid because as we’re seeing, the people who are coming into the hospital are basically unvaccinated people…,” the Health Minister added.
There are roughly 140 persons infected with the virus at present.
To date, 437,152 adults have received a first dose of a vaccine while 334,899 received two doses.
For the 12 to 17 age cohort, 34,176 received a first dose while 24,813 received two doses.
In terms of booster doses, 56,174 have been administered.
