Remain calm and tolerant, says MEC
With the number of Covid-19 cases on the rise and familiar faces getting infected every day, the MEC of the Department of Health in the province, Sasekani Manzini, has appealed for tolerance and calm.
Manzini appealed to the citizenry not to discriminate against or stigmatise those infected with Covid-19.
“Many people have been treating this thing as a joke, but now that they are beginning to see others close to them and in their neighbourhoods being infected by the virus, they start to panic.
Now is not the time to panic, but rather a time to support each other and start applying all those safety and health regulations as set out by the World Health Organisation.
“Above all, this is not the time to discriminate and point fingers at those infected by the virus. We must not stigmatise and brand them as aliens, because they need us the most to fight the virus,” appealed Manzini.
“We need to be calm and tolerant with one another,” she continued. “We need to join hands and unite against this common enemy. It is here and is lurking in the dark, waiting for its next victim.”
“We must not be found wanting. We must protect one another and we can start by asking the person next to us to put their masks on and to keep the required social distance. We can start by avoiding unnecessary gatherings and looking after our health.”
She made a plea to the public to refrain from distributing false information about Covid-19.
“This will further cause panic and it may even lead to death. Many people out there are still clueless and lack the correct information, but as a department we try by all means to ensure that we communicate the correct information using social media platforms, radio stations and newspapers,” she stressed.
To date, a total of 5 577 043 people have been screened in the province with 10 363 positive cases recorded.
