Covid and SA need calm heads

What a long way we have come since the first case of Covid was detected in South Africa just short of three years ago.

On March 5, 2020 the announcement that a 38-year-old South African who had travelled to Italy had tested positive for Covid set in motion more than two years of chaos, panic, lockdowns and restrictions that will forever leave a mark.

Subsequently, government’s decisions – many irrational and totally incomprehensible – affected businesses, livelihoods and families. Some will never recover.

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Some restrictions bordered on the bizarre, with the banning of open-toed shoes taking the cake. Studies have since shown that the lockdowns did more harm than good but in government’s defence, no country could ever have been prepared for a pandemic of this nature.

Government’s call at the time to adhere to social distancing, sanitise, wear masks and vaccinate when vaccinations were available was spot-on and no doubt saved many lives.

In South Africa, just more than 19 million people have been fully vaccinated, while the cumulative number of Covid cases here have crossed four million. It seems our government has finally learned how to deal with Covid and the many challenges it brings.

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The highly transmissible XBB.1.5 variant was recently found in South Africa. Government took no kneejerk decisions.

President Cyril Ramaphosa moved quickly to calm fears, by urging the public not to panic over XBB.1.5 and met the National Coronavirus Command Council (NCCC) yesterday to discuss it. It’s a relief.

The last thing we need is people stockpiling due to panic and government imposing more clumsy restrictions on a country that is trying to get the economy going once more. Calm heads are needed.

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