Covid-19 lockdown beyond day 100 – We are only getting our big wave of cases now
Although we are currently under a mild form of lockdown, with schools still shut and the tobacco ban still being fought over and the law courts declaring lockdown illegal, and as much as I want to believe that the pandemic and virus is a hoax of sorts, with fake stats and ulterior motives by some elite globalists to usher in their agenda, I can’t help but take notice of the current stats coming in via mainstream news media here in slow-paced South Africa. It appears that now with the arrival of our winter in the south, the covid virus wave is hitting our shores with a greater impact that previously up until now. It’s the 100 day mark since our national lockdown began, and today for the first time I am hearing of serious cases manifesting in my little remote town way on the southernmost coast of Africa.
We are far from anywhere, which has been a blessing but now cases are arriving as well as mortalities, so it appears as if we should stay vigilant and brace only now for the real impact of the rumored virus circling the globe. When the mayor of your town gets tested positive, then you realize that this is real and has arrived for sure. Fortunately the symptoms for healthy people are little more than a dry cough and a slight fever. So for most of us there is no worry. But our capacity to spread the virus and to the elderly may be a delicate situation to be concerned about, or at least cautious.
If cases continue to pick up at the current rapidly escalating level, then we may find our country placed back into harder lockdown measures once more. My province here, called the Western Cape, is showing stats that place us globally as having some of the highest mortality rates, which is a concern. However, there are numerous sub districts and some of them are vastly poorer and under more cramped conditions than the rest, and that is where the hotspots are understandably. There you hear of around 650 deaths per million and rising, and the potential for the mortality rate to hit 1500 per million, which would take those poorer townships to the level of New York state or Madrid apparently.
Considering that the districts most affected are the poorer areas where there is already a high rate of prior lung disease, specifically Tuberculosis in this region, it makes sense that they would be getting hit the hardest, unfortunately. The rates are comparable to those of the UK at present, which is around 650 per million, some of the highest in the world. As a whole though, South Africa is reporting only 48 deaths per million, while USA is at 390/mill apparently. So we are still overall in the lower category of cases and fatalities, but the hotspots are flaring up to peak global levels.
Such is the inequality here in our socially divided culture, based on our national history of Apartheid and inequality. The economic divide is still evident along racial lines, despite the 25 years since Apartheid ended. The new ANC government of Nelson Mandela has provided some improvement over the past two decades but it has been too slow to really make enough of an impact, as Employment opportunity as well as actual grass roots schooling remains pitifully bad. Last week the country was listed around number 10 in the global list of new infections, but today it has risen to number 4 in terms of new infections daily, which is serious, and number 11 for the mortality rate, according to “Worldometer” stats.
My initial skepticism over the pandemic has been dampened as these new statistics arrive and cases increase in my remote town. We still need to get through most of our winter here, so this may be the main testing time for us, while the global north undergoes a potential second wave of infections, based on the opening up of the economy, the lifting of lockdown or the mass congregation of people at protests. It may take some months, if not years before herd immunity is reached for us all, so caution is probably recommended. I have no worries, since I’m fit and healthy, but there are many vulnerable people who may be more affected, so for the sake of their well being, I may continue to keep my distance, go out less and play it safe. How are things looking on your side of the world? Let us know is the comments below.
(image pixabay)