LET’S GET ORGANISED!

The last thing we need as a country during a pandemic is the level of division among those who ought to be singing from the same hymn book on how to ensure we are well prepared for the more potent third and fourth wave of COVID-19.
The Cabinet versus Parliament war over who cares more for our lives or livelihoods is only serving to weaken our prevention strategies and increase our vulnerability. That this conflict is playing itself out in one of the last countries on the continent to receive COVID-19 vaccines and just weeks before the next wave hits home in late May or early June, is seriously worrying. Cabinet needs to own up, to a large extent, to its fair share of failings with regard to getting the right balance between allowing several parts of the economy to breathe and protecting the citizens, which has led to creating superspreader scenarios rather than preventing them.

The main undoing of the 6:00pm curfew has been to give people just one hour to go via the shops and get public transport home when they knock off work at 5:00pm. The impunity with which shops are ignoring social distancing regulations is criminal. The less said about the complete disregard of adherence in the public transport vehicles the better. It is these shortcomings that bolster the argument for the reopening of churches that can be more orderly.

organised

Even our pupils would probably be better organised in schools. To say the country has banned alcohol sales is wishful thinking, as inebriation remains a regular feature in our communities, while the law abiding liquor traders face shutdowns. It doesn’t help matters that Cabinet cannot even give a date of arrival for the anticipated vaccine, the delay of which is what seems to have motivated the lockdown extension. It certainly can’t be the waiting for a drop in infections down to 10 per day, while we still have the superspreaders – it simply won’t happen. Besides, the average daily infection rate when the previous partial lockdown was lifted was 15 cases, which is only slightly more than the 25 cases we have currently. Then how do we get to decide on 10? What we all need right now is a government that can draw us into its confidence with a well organised strategy and effective implementation, from all fronts, in dealing with the pandemic. Transparency and evidence-based reasoning is also key, if public buy-in and protection is to be realised. Political power squabbles will only serve to kill people.  

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