Chronicle Editor
Thandeka Moyo-Ndlovu, Senior Health Reporter
WHEN Covid-19 first made headlines in Zimbabwe sometime in March last year, masses took to social media platforms, lampooning the pandemic with rib-tickling memes.
Over time, the merriment has turned to depressing daily obituaries on WhatsApp statuses, Facebook and Twitter as the body count of the killer virus edges towards five million globally, as the reality of the pandemic has finally dawned on everyone.
Previously, Zimbabweans competed to outdo each other in production of internet jokes as most people did not believe the killer virus really existed.
Hilarious depictions of how married men would suffer after being locked down at home were the order of the day.
Some even suggested, tongue in cheek, that the recommended wearing of masks to prevent the spread of Covid-19 would result in future generations referring to the mouth and nose as private parts.
To many the first lockdown came as a bonus sabbatical from their crazy work schedules and others were afforded a chance to be with family for the first time without unending excuses of work and schools’ pressure.
The country’s first Covid-19 death of Zororo Makamba sent shock waves to a few who knew him personally while the majority still maintained the virus was a global political strategy to control masses.
When leaders announced that large gatherings had been banned and strict social distancing should be practiced, with immediate effect, the same people mischievously took to social media and questioned if sex was allowed during the Covid-19 lockdown.
For a while many took turns to circulate falsified reports that Kenyans had been ordered to not have sexual intercourse to avert the spread of Covid-19. The manifestation of Covid-19 has, however, been changing since the country recorded its first Covid-19 case on March 20.
Initially, cases were mainly reported from individuals with a travel history.
After a few weeks, Covid-19 cases started being concentrated at quarantine centres accommodating returning residents mainly from South Africa, Botswana and Mozambique.
During the first few weeks, the country witnessed a dramatic change as it started recording an increase in local transmissions which were partly attributed to positive individuals escaping from quarantine centres and other people knowingly or unknowingly spreading the virus by not taking preventive measures such as self-isolation.
Workplaces, hospitals and prisons eventually became Covid-19 epicentres, a disturbing trend given that most victims at hospitals and prisons are the Covid-19 frontliners while workers at different companies who are supposed to produce for the nation were under threat.
That is the point when viral memes started evolving from the downright ridiculously amusing to sober educative messages.
A year later, vaccines were approved and rolled out in Zimbabwe but the same complacent members of the public took turns to spread myths claiming that the vaccine were meant to kill and disturb fertility amongst women in the child bearing age group.
Members of the public were back to their old ways.
As of July 22, Zimbabwe had 93 421 confirmed cases, including 61 723 recoveries and 2 870 deaths.
Now 480 days into the Covid-19 lockdown, WhatsApp statuses, tweets and Facebook posts are almost always obituaries and eulogies of Covid-19 victims. Almost everyone in the world now knows a neighbour, close friend or relative who has died from the virus.
Barely a day passes without members of the public turning to WhatsApp just to express pain over sudden death of a loved one whom they thought would conquer the virus.
Of late, most WhatsApp status updates are pictures of dead people whose passing has left immeasurable voids in many families.
Despite all these facts, a few legends are still adamant that Covid-19 is not real hence they carelessly open their bars and gather with friends over drinks just to prove that they can do as they please.
Health experts have singled out funeral gatherings as one of the Covid-19 super spreaders, while visiting sick relatives is also contributing to a spike in new infections.
Older people who are more vulnerable to Covid-19 refuse to stay away from their friends or relatives’ funerals.
Like dinosaurs that failed to adapt to change, humans that do not change their ways to conform to Covid-19 protocol are facing death.
Showing up in numbers to console the bereaved and nursing the ill is etched in ubuntu philosophy, whose ethos translates to: “I am, because we are,” or “humanity towards others”.
Ubuntu philosophy totally opposes Covid-19 prevention measures such as isolating, social distancing and even quarantining to prevent exposure.
Suddenly the millions of comical memes are nowhere to be found anywhere because Covid-19 has become a reality too loud to ignore.
At first Covid-19 deaths were just rumours people heard from the elite but to date, every Zimbabwean knows at least one person who had succumbed to the deadly virus.
Every one of us has had a sad encounter with Covid-19 and this is the time for us to change and finally accept that we were never ready for this heart-breaking predicament we find ourselves in.
Our health experts on the other side keep emphasising that we can only escape from this shadow of death if we comply with the tried and tested prevention measures like washing hands, practicing social distancing and wearing masks.
The only memes we have to share now reads something like: “Being alive is a blessing on its own and the sad part about 2021 is that anytime could be the last time talking to someone. Therefore, forgive, reconcile and don’t hold grudges.”
One reads: “I am selling cages to deter parents and our grannies from attending funerals because Covid-19 is real.”
Until we accept that Covid-19 can wipe out our families, communities and countries, we will continue with the deadly complacency and exposing ourselves to many sorrowful days.
However, since we are alive and able to read this, let’s remember to wear our masks correctly, stay home and avoid unnecessary visits to anywhere because Covid-19 is real and it kills!-@thamamoe
Online Reporter