
2020 BES TOFBK .COM
Caribbean L 12 ife, March 20-26, 2020
Guyana election crisis worsens
voided by the courts, leading to the
decision to recount all ballots.
As the impasse drags on, as a thick
feeling of malaise hangs over the nation
and as workers just kill off time at
barely functioning ministries and state
departments. There is basically no cabinet
and no parliament as this has been
dissolved since December. Guyana is
also operating without a normal budget
as the House is out. Ministries and state
departments are only allowed to spend
a twelfth of last year’s allocation each
month until a new budget is approved.
This has severely limited capital works
and investments.
Fearing political tensions might boil
over into full scale unrest as was the
case last week, stores and commercial
banks remain largely boarded up and
shuttered, with some working only half
day, sending home staff early even as
leaders from both camps have appealed
for calm.
“In light of this recent development,
the commission is expected to appear
in court on Friday. The high level independent
CARICOM delegation has indicated
that they would withdraw from
the process. The commission is hopeful
for an early resolution,” the commission
statement said.
PM Mottley expressed regret at the
latest developments and wasted little
time in suggesting that “it is clear that
there are forces that do not want to see
the votes recounted.”
The 2020 elections are seen as the
most important since independence
from Britain in 1966 as the country has
found an abundance of offshore oil and
gas. Guyana’s take from five shipments
of a million barrels of oil each this year
could be worth $300 million based on
oil prices, but revenues could jump to
about $5 billion by 2025 when several
oil field would have come on stream.
Continued from Page 1
Practice coronavirus recommended precautions
heal our community during this dreadful
time,” said Clarke, referring to the
350-bed teaching hospital in the Wyckoff
Heights section of Bushwick, Brooklyn.
She said the US Congress is “working
tirelessly on legislation that will help support
individuals and families whose lives
are being put on hold by the preventative
measures to stop coronavirus.”
In her capacity as Vice Chair of the US
House of Representatives’ Energy and
Commerce Committee, which oversees
the health subcommittee, and her role
as a member of the House’s Homeland
Security Committee, Clarke said she has
been “on the forefront to ensure coronavirus
is getting the attention it needs
through federal legislation.”
She said she voted last week the
Coronavirus Supplemental Package to
allocate US$8.3 billion in discretionary
spending to aid in the development of
vaccines, research, equipment and state
and local health budgets.
“Thankfully, this supplemental package
passed both in the House of Representatives
and the Senate, and was
signed into law by the president,” she
said.
Clarke said the Atlanta, Ga-headquartered
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (CDC) is still determining
how these funds will be allocated among
CDC operations and to states, including
New York.
She said this money will support
improved surveillance for coronavirus;
laboratory testing to detect positive
cases; contact tracing to identify additional
positive cases; infection control at
the local level, including public awareness
campaigns to prevent additional
cases; and US$490 million to ensure
Medicare payments for telehealth, so
elderly patients “can consult doctors
remotely.”
Medicare is a national health insurance
program begun in 1966 under the
Social Security Administration (SSA)
and now administered by the Centers for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS).
It primarily provides health insurance
for Americans aged 65 and older,
but also for some younger people with
disability status as determined by the
Social Security Administration, as well
as people with end stage renal disease
and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS
or Lou Gehrig’s disease).
Clarke said she is also an original
co-sponsor of the Families First Coronavirus
Response Act to ensure free
testing for COVID-19, 14 days of paid
emergency sick leave, additional funding
for Medicaid, three months of paid
family and medical leave, as well as
expanded unemployment insurance and
food security.
Medicaid is a federal and state program
that helps with medical costs for
some people with limited income and
resources. Medicaid also offers benefits
not normally covered by Medicare,
including nursing home care and personal
care services.
Continued from Page 1
Barbados PM Mia Mottley.
Photo by George Alleyne