Taskforce to name and shame those arrested for covid-19 breaches, name, photo, occupation to be publish

In this photo above, a silent headphones party was held at a Sports Club Ground in Georgetown over the weekend. The task force swooped down and patrons scattered. The promoters have since apologised for breaching covid-19 guidelines

The Coronavirus Task Force has taken a decision that it will now be releasing the information and photographs of any person detained during anti-social   gathering enforcement exercises.

BIG Smith New Watch has been informed that given the increasing number of persons being tested positive for the virus coupled with increasing deaths, the Taskforce is looking  for ways to cause persons to  desist from social gatherings.

At a meeting on September 24, 2021, the Covid-19 Taskforce deliberated and agreed that all persons arrested and charged for Covid-19 offences will have their photographs, name and occupation published in the newspaper and on the Guyana Police Force Facebook Page.

The moves comes even as a nunber of ‘secret location’ parties are beings advertised by a number of persons and these events are mostly being held in Region 4, the area with the highest concentration of covid-19 cases according to the Ministry of Health.

Patrons have been skipping, jumping and hiding from what is now popularly known as the ‘ormy bus’ whenever the Covid-19 Taskforce shows up to close off events which are in breach of the Covid-19 and social gathering guidelines.

The Guyana Police and Defence Forces have been carrying out joint enforcement operations especially on the weekends where events and large gatherings are taking place.

Guyana has enforced a curfew of 10:30 PM but a number of establishments have been literally proving to be a challenge for the Taskforce and its enforcement drives are marred by ‘somebody who knows somebody’ and calls are often made to allow events to carry on.

A number of persons have been charged and placed before the courts for breaching the Covid-19 Guidelines, some of those cases have been dismissed also.

This publication is however in receipt of a number of complaints against named police officers who have been reportedly accepting monies from various establishments to allow them to carry on their events and in some cases close of events of competing businesses.

There are also persons who are paying policemen monies ($3000 and $5000) to be released once they are detained during joint army and police covid-19 enforcement operations.

The Coronavirus continues to take lives across the world and Guyana is no different. A large percentage of the local population has either not been vaccinated or are awaiting their second dose of the coronavirus vaccine.