Letter of the Day | Government response to COVID-19 has parts missing

THE EDITOR, Madam:

THE HOLNESS administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic was timely when it came to closing our borders, preparing quarantine facilities (and hospitals? we shall see), social distancing, handwashing, and banning large gatherings. But beyond that, there is much more that could, and should, have been done.

1. Much better tracing of the 5,000-plus people who arrived in the island between March 18 and 23 and have remained. Tracing should have been a door-to-door effort from the start, not a voluntary phone-in. (Some of the police still engaged in almost-pointless random road spot checks could have been used.) After that, strictly monitored self-isolation should have been implemented, with a temperature test every day. This is where South Korea and Singapore did well, and it doesn’t require NIDS, by the way.

2. Testing should have been ramped up from the start, including healthcare workers and other random tests in every parish. It appears that we have the capacity to do 1,260 tests per week (soon to be increased). Yet, only a few hundred tests have been carried out in the last three weeks. If this is because health workers are fearful of the cough or sneeze when the person is being tested, then surely, good face masks and screens could have been provided to this relatively small number of people.

3. The wearing of masks when out in public should have been made as important as handwashing (which should have been made mandatory at the entrance to every business and office building). Even non-surgical masks would have been better than nothing; and these could have been made freely available, through local manufacturing, I’m sure. (Just think how quickly shopping bags arrived on the scene after the scandal-bag ban).

National media could also have been used to show us how to make our own masks, using T-shirt material, etc., which have at least a 50 per cent effectiveness (80-plus per cent for surgical masks). Any mask would be better than nothing.

4. Use of hotels for the aged and medically vulnerable from high-density communities, again with daily temperature test for all. This is where our affluent private sector could have assisted, with hoteliers being aided by our many wealthy financiers and financial institutions, who have shown to that, after all, they are not the essential sector they like to paint themselves to be.

The nightly curfew may just get more people to take the whole matter more seriously, even if its effectiveness on the spread of the virus may be less than its effect on crime.

But overall, let us be, and encourage the Government to be, more proactive and innovative before escalation occurs to the point of no return.

PAUL WARD

Oracabessa, St Mary