– in bid to keep the public safe
Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony says the Government is considering charging event organisers, who fail to implement and follow COVID-19 measures during their activities.
Minister Anthony made the statement during Thursday’s COVID-19 update. Hr said permission for an event is given with conditions attached, which organisers must follow.
“We send people to these events to monitor them and if we realise that people are not abiding by the conditions of the issue with the permission, then what we’ll do is that we wouldn’t give them any permission in the future.
So, you either work with us to make sure that people remain safe or, if you’re not willing to do that, then we are not going to permit you these events and that is the case with some of these sporting organisations who present a plan that will keep people safe,” he said.
Dr. Anthony said the Government is keen on protecting citizens and will take action against those who deliberately breach the measures.
“In some cases, we are exploring the option that the persons who would have applied for permission and didn’t abide by these regulations, whether or not these persons can be prosecuted.
We are not just putting these things, we want people to remain safe, that’s why there are several things that people would have to comply with,” he added.
To this end, Dr. Anthony said he hopes that people understand the risk they are taking when participating in any event that draws large crowds. While some young people believe that they are invincible to the disease as opposed to the older folks, the Minister said they are still at risk of suffering from ‘long COVID’, which refers to the long-term ailments linked to the disease.
Dr. Anthony said Covid is not as straightforward as people believe and even as more vaccines are becoming available, people cannot afford to be complacent. Recently, the Guyana Motor Racing and Sports Club (GMR&SC) was suspended from hosting further activities following a breach of an agreement between the Sports Club and the National COVID-19 Task Force.