Govt must now tell the truth on Covid-19

The coronavirus is set to devastate our country, even if our political principals fear to say so: the growing figures tell us we are in for the long haul in terms of our health and our economy which is already suffering.

Economists fear that SA’s economy faces ruin, should we reach the levels of coronavirus infection similar to Italy, due to a possible ban on travel and reduction of tourism – one of the economic anchors in SA. Italy’s death toll this week is 463, while we had none at the time of going to print.

As with any type of illness, prevention is better than cure and acting too late will not help. As the figures of those infected are growing, we need to be cautious from a political level and not take the problem too lightly.

We must begin to engage with the virus at its early stage to prevent any dreadful eventuality.

The fact that SA’s rate of infection is climbing daily, is an indication that the country may have an epidemic on its hands.

According to government, a 38-year-old infected man from KwaZulu-Natal made contact with 12 people, another from Gauteng had 13 contacts linked to him, a woman of the same age from KwaZulu-Natal was in contact with 15 people. Another from the same province had 16 contacts and three more men from the province had contact with 15, 12 and 21 people respectively.

That means at least 104 people linked to those patients were at direct risk – and that is a worry.

There were identified cases with no common thread too – and that should tell us that the problem is bigger than our authorities are trying to make us believe.

This is a serious matter that does not need public relations aimed at cheating citizens into believing all is under control when the opposite may be true.

It was always to be expected that should a disease of any kind break out in the world, sub-Saharan African would be worst affected and South Africa, in particular, would feel the most terrible effect of an outbreak in the medium to long term.

That’s because our authorities take things for granted.

At some stage we were the worst affected by HIV/Aids in the sub-continent, but thanks to antiretrovirals and education we managed to escape that killer monster.

While it is bad to cause unnecessary panic, citizens should be prepared properly by those in power. Their laissez-faire approach in dealing with this matter is worrying. They should take no chances; we should be properly informed.

We have yet to see efforts being made to prepare for mass infections in case that happens on our shores.

Maybe we have not reached the stage where we have to stop sporting events – but we have to act and not be left behind.

We must understand that sub-Saharan Africa, being the poorest region in the world, tends to be where all diseases would have a devastating impact, compared to other parts of the world.

It’s the truth that will liberate us. Public relations stunts are untruths and smack of a cover-up.

Let’s hope we don’t fall into that trap.

Eric NakiFor more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.