LOCKDOWN FOR 2 WEEKS NOW!

Sir,

Allow me to express my gravest concern at how our government is handing the coronavirus pandemic. Eswatini is a small and extremely vulnerable country due to its demography and HIV infections in particular.

The country has scores of people who suffer from dreaded diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer and other immune disorders. The country has significant pockets of densely populated settlements with extremely poor hygiene and sanitation. We must ask ourselves why we had the highest infection rate of HIV worldwide.

The answer is quite simple; our demographics, our habits and our social makeup, lack of response etc, we are a vulnerable country to any kind of highly infectious contagion. I would have thought that government would have remembered this, especially in light of the HIV price that the country has already paid economically, socially and emotionally.

Interventions

We were mostly ‘saved’ by international interventions, through enormous funding that supported the fight against HIV and its consequences. Will we still get the same funding if we were to suffer a greater scourge from COVID-19? The answer is an obvious no. The very countries that donated and are donating are now broke and attending to their own COVID-19 economic crises. That means Eswatini will be left high and dry to fend for herself with an already decimated local economy.

Relaxation

Why can’t our government see this? Why a partial lockdown? Why the relaxation of an existing lockdown? Have we lost our sanity? Our neighbours are not playing games with the lives of their citizens!

They have locked down good and proper! Why is Eswatini gambling with the lives of emaSwati? Government had an amazing opportunity to lockdown Eswatini 98 per cent just for 14 days and we would have flattened the curve completely, but no, people were allowed to continue as normal because there was no clear direction, no enforcement and leadership was lacking. What are we afraid of?

An economic disaster or the attrition of a nation as it almost happened with the HIV pandemic? The reported COVID-19 cases are just a tip of the iceberg. Many people know someone with COVID-19 symptoms but who wants the long lonely drive in an ambulance to Siteki, possibly to die a lonely death. Imagine if the activities that unite us as a nation no longer exist.

Imagine if Umhlanga and Incwala do not take place for the next two years. What will Eswatini look like? Imagine our elders wiped out? Just because our government could not fully lockdown a population of just over a million people following just two weeks.
We already have an overburdened health sector. Imagine hospitals closing due to the overwhelming burden of COVID-19. People will die just because they could not get a simple medical intervention that always saves a life.

Woman will give birth on the streets. Asthmatic children will die just because they cannot be nebulised. The Lubombo Referral Hospital will be filled to the brim and no health professionals will want to expose themselves to such a high risk. At a stage like this the economy will actually mean nothing.

The country will be lawless and enraged; the armed forces discouraged and sick too. So what is the best immediate and urgent solution? Lockdown Eswatini for two solid weeks NOW! We are a small manageable country, it can be done and we will benefit.

Sent from my iPad

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