Chronicle Editor
Khumbulani Vodloza Sibanda
THE past few weeks have seen a steep rise in the cases of Covid-19 infections which are being driven mainly by returning citizens and local transmissions.
This comes against a background of non-adherence to lockdown regulations such as staying at home and the wearing of face masks and the observance of social distancing requirements by a majority of people. Many people continue to regard the pandemic as something very distant which they only encounter in the media. Even the spike in deaths from four to 19 in the past month has failed to move many Zimbabweans to take the pandemic seriously.
Denial and disbelief
While the Government needs to strike a balance between keeping the economy running by allowing certain economic sectors such as the manufacturing and the informal sectors running and preventing the further spread of the pandemic, it is sad that people continue taking advantage of this, to blatantly disregard lockdown regulations.
A visit to high human traffic areas of Harare such as the Mbare-Musika or some high-density shopping centres reveals the heart-rending scenarios of crowds of people going about their normal business without observing basic requirements such as social distancing and wearing face masks. The situation is the same in Bulawayo, with people behaving as if everything is normal. Many of the citizens have argued that it is more important to fend for one’s survival through various economic activities such as vending than observing the coronavirus pandemic measures. This has been worsened by the fact that most citizens are living in denial.
The fact that they do not know of anyone close to them who has succumbed to the pandemic is also feeding their disbelief.
The disease does not have physical evidence such as wounds to convince people that it is spreading in Zimbabwe. It is only when a Covid-19 patient dies that people in his or her neighbourhood get shocked into taking the disease seriously.
Frightening figures
A look at Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 statistics for the past one month shows that the pandemic is worsening. For example, the number of infections increased by 176 percent from 356 as at 13 June to 1 034 as at 14 July 2020. Even the number of deaths, which had been sitting at four for months, also soared by a whopping 375 percent from four to the current figure of 19 over the same period.
Zimbabwe is not alone in the surging coronavirus figures predicament. South Africa, which is one of the pandemic’s hotspots in the region and on the continent, last week had to take the hard decision of tightening its lockdown regulations as infections continued to shoot-up. As of 14 July 2020, that country registered 10 496 new cases during the previous 24 hours bringing the country’s infections tally to 298 292.
South Africa’s cases constitute 40 percent of the continent’s total infections figure.
Despite that country’s sound health system, the South African government, which had been progressively relaxing its lockdown over that past months, had to announce new and stricter lockdown regulations to contain the spread of the disease. Under the new Disaster Management Act, South Africa has returned to the ban on alcohol to reduce the volume of trauma patients and free up more beds for Covid-19 patients. A 9pm to 4am curfew has also been introduced to curb alcohol-linked social ills that promote the spread of the pandemic.
The new Act also provided the legal framework for the South African government to enforce the mandatory wearing of face masks as part of that country’s fight against the pandemic. The South African government last week reportedly prepared 1,5 million graves in the Gauteng Province for Covid-19 victims in anticipation of a worst-case scenario. This bodes very ill for Zimbabwe as most of its cases are coming from its southern neighbour.
Other countries, which are grappling with high infection figures on the continent, include Nigeria with 30 748 cases and Madagascar with 4 867 cases. Despite its promising news of a home-grown herbal solution for the coronavirus, Covid Organics, earlier this year, Madagascar had to introduce a lockdown to flatten the curve of growing infection cases.
On Sunday, Malagasy President, Andry Rajoelina announced the death of two legislators who succumbed to the disease. Over 20 legislators tested positive for the virus. The global picture is equally grim with the United States, India and South Africa leading the pack in terms of new cases. The US registered 66 500 new cases on 12 July, while India registered 28 637 new cases during the same day to bring the total infections numbers for each country to 3 304 972 and 878 254 respectively.
Need for urgent measures
In view of the worsening Covid-19 pandemic, it is very clear that the Government needs to take more and very urgent measures to contain the spread of the disease. President Emmerson Mnangagwa has already hinted at reviewing the lockdown regulations, this should be effected without delay.
Given that Zimbabwe’s health care system is creaking under the weight of sanctions-induced financial challenges, it is only prudent that Government introduces more stringent and effective measures to contain the spread of the disease. This could include very punitive and deterrent penalties for people who neglect to correctly wear their masks.
It could also take very serious action against those who gather unnecessarily endangering innocent citizens as well as punitive measures on peddlers of false Covid-19 information. One of the underlying causative factors of the soaring infection figures is the returning citizens mostly from South Africa who are not only escaping from quarantine facilities but also silently joining local communities without undergoing or completing the quarantine process. Most of them silently mingle with members of their home communities exposing them to the virus. Going forward, Government needs to tackle this very effectively.
While free movement and assembly remains Constitutional rights, it is time that people know that the rights are not absolute. They should know that such rights are subservient to the rights of other people. If their rights to freedom of movement and assembly infringe on the rights of other people to safety and life from a pandemic, the rights of the majority always prevail.
Even before Government moves in to enforce the lockdown measures, it is incumbent upon individual citizens to take the pandemic very seriously and observe the current lockdown regulations. One does not have to wear a face mask for police roadblocks, but for one’s own safety. The responsibility for one’s health does not lie with Government but with oneself.
In view of this, those who are excitedly supporting Jacob Ngarivhume’s calls for an anti-Government protest on 31 July should bear this in mind. Ngarivhume and his handlers will not take care of the people that he is inciting to protest in the event that they catch the deadly virus.
If anything, the authorities should make him accountable for breaching lockdown regulations.
Bongani Ndlovu