If we all stood or sat still for 3 weeks, 2 meters apart, those carrying the Coronavirus would stop infecting others, the virus would die out and the epidemic would end. This is the point of the lockdown. Of course we can’t really be frozen in time. We need to eat, provide essential services and care for those who can’t care for themselves, including the sick and the elderly.
“Each time we step out of our homes, we expose ourselves, our family and others to risk of infection.”
We can reduce the risk of infection by staying in, washing our hands, keeping our hands off our faces, and by covering our mouths and noses when we go out or if we are sick. When shopping and queuing for food, give other people space. Wash your hands before you go out, when you get home and again when you’re finished unpacking. Unless we are all safely at home we can’t be sure that we won’t pick up the virus. It’s a very nasty little beast. It is able to cling to some surfaces for days, before hitching a ride on a passing hand and making its way to your face. The terrible conditions in which many of our people live means SA has a big challenge. Many informal settlements and backyards are radically over-crowded. Many families share taps and toilets with other households; or live in single rooms, without privacy. Being cooped up together, night and day, will challenge the strongest relationships. Then there’s poverty. Most people could not afford to go shopping for huge stockpiles of food or essential items before the lockdown. Many people are unemployed, and many who were employed have been sent home facing very uncertain futures. Most salaries and grants were paid after the lockdown. You can’t stay at home if there is no food, but you can’t shop if there is no money to buy food. We must overcome Covid-19, but we must also really see each other and the state of our country. Be honest about the legacy of apartheid; honest about the impacts of corruption over the last 25 years. If more people understand the real problems, we can fix what is really wrong. Overcrowding and hardship created by the old Group Areas Act is still being perpetuated. We need racial and spatial integration. We must reduce the gap between rich and poor. If we had done more of those things in the first 25 years of our democracy we would have been in a much healthier position to tackle this virus square-on right now.
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