EDITORIAL | Do your Covid bit. Don’t force the state into drastic action

In general, big, out-of-control problems start with little hints here and there. Initially, it’s easy to ignore them, until one day you are faced with a mammoth problem and suddenly wonder: how did we get here?

That’s how it is with the Covid-19 numbers. One infection, one death, until it starts to multiply. At the latest count, 2,929,862 laboratory-done Covid-19 tests have come back positive. To date, 89,574 Covid-related deaths have been recorded, leaving families, colleagues and friends, parents and children still picking up the pieces.

Also left in its devastating wake are healthcare workers who have to do more with less. In September, an estimated 1,300 healthcare workers have succumbed to the virus. Last August that number stood at 180.

So here we are again, dropping our masks in relief that we have made it through the third wave. But the sadness for those who did not lingers, with no guarantees that we might get through the next wave unscathed.

Yet lockdown rules are flouted in plain sight, from non-wearing of masks and not sanitising when one enters a building to eating and drinking merrily in packed venues. Even pre-election rallies were the perfect examples of how to break the law and get away with it.

We cannot afford to underplay the latest figures to come out Gauteng, which also carried the inglorious title of leader of the third wave.

Most of the new 687 cases in the 24-hour cycle released on Sunday were from Gauteng (79%), followed by North West and KwaZulu-Natal, each accounting for 5%. Mpumalanga and the Western Cape each accounted for 3%, the Northern Cape accounted for 2% and the Eastern Cape, Free State and Limpopo each accounted for 1%.

The City of Tshwane said its active cases had risen sharply to 1,689, with a cluster outbreak at the Tshwane University of Technology’s Pretoria West campus being particularly worrying.

“Other areas of concern with increased infections include Hatfield, Atteridgeville, Mamelodi East, Centurion and Soshanguve,” city spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said.

New confirmed daily cases have also increased, from below 50 to above 300.

Everyone should do their part to stem the spread. A number of companies, despite getting a lot of push-back and criticism from unions, have gone ahead and put out vaccine mandates. If you want to work for them, or conduct business with them, you have to be a card-carrying member of the party of the vaccinated.

It is a bold move, but also one necessary if we want our workforce back in the office. Of course there are no guarantees because it’s all about mitigating risk.

Our vaccination rates remain staggeringly low though and, other than a Vooma vaccination drive here and there, not a lot is seen to be happening. A saying comes to mind – along the lines of, if you don’t want to go to the mountain, the mountain will come to you.

It will have a familiar ring, but government must be single-minded in driving this process. In fact, the fate of our country rests on it.

On Sunday, Bloomberg reported European governments were desperate to end the pandemic after more than 18 months. A fourth wave of infections has reached record levels in several countries, putting health systems under strain yet again.

It sparked protests in various countries such as Austria, where thousands of protesters gathered in Vienna after the government announced a vaccine mandate and a national lockdown to contain record coronavirus cases.

In their bid to put Covid-19 behind them, governments, including those of Germany, the Czech Republic, Greece, Austria and the Netherlands, are increasingly focused on the unvaccinated, the report said.

Closer to home, Kenya has taken a hard stance: no government service if you are not vaccinated by December 21, health secretary Mutahi Kagwe said in a statement.

It does not stop there. Access to hospitals, prisons and game parks as well as hotels, bars, restaurants and businesses will also be restricted.

Are we heading that way? Perhaps not. But if people don’t start making the right decisions, it will have to be made for them.