Healthcare workers treating Covid-19 patients at the Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria on 11 January 2020. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Major cities became ghost towns overnight, billions of people were gripped by fear. It became what World War III might look and feel like. In March 2020, the world was nuked by the Sars-CoV-2 virus, better known as Covid.
To date, South Africa has had more than four million infections and well over 100 000 reported deaths, although some experts estimate the reality to be three times as many. More than 1 300 healthcare workers died in service of others.
Globally, 751 million infections were chalked up and more than seven million people died. Presently, there are more than 6 000 active cases in South Africa, not dissimilar to some months during lockdown.
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The virus remains on a steady spread and healthcare professionals recommend people should remain vigilant. Medicare’s Mike van Wyk reports a sustained trickle of patients into his clinics. The company’s PCR and antigen-testing centres remain open and so, too, do vaccination rooms.
He said: “The successful vaccination campaign has seen most people build a resistance to the virus, in some form or another, and infection rates have slowed as a consequence. But the danger is still there. “People are still dying from Covid, just in smaller numbers.”
He added the hangover from the pandemic at its most severe includes prolonged effects of long Covid and several yet unexplained and latent medical challenges ranging from weakened coronary systems to mental health issues. There is also the threat of a mutation or sublineage causing havoc again.
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The World Health Organisation keeps a constant lookout for any signs of trouble.
Van Wyk said: “It is up to everyone to continue managing their own health and wellness and to ensure that, should they contract the disease, it is reported and managed by healthcare professionals. It’s the only way in which what remains a pandemic can be managed and data processed successfully.”
Vaccination remains critical. At the beginning, isolation and minimal human contact were prescribed to curb its spread.
In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced a national lockdown for 21 days, starting on 27 March.
Citizens were given three days to sort out their affairs, the military was deployed, visible policing impressed for the first time in years and fear gripped the nation – and the world. Van Wyk said it was like a war zone at times.
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“I have never seen so many people become so quickly infected, I have never seen symptoms manifest so aggressively in such a short space of time. In the beginning we were all afraid and the healthcare profession did not know what to expect. We were as scared as the patients.”
South Africa reported its first Covid case on 5 March, 2020. The patient, a 38-year-old man, had recently returned from a trip to Italy, which was experiencing a severe outbreak at the time. The virus soon began to spread.
The 21 days became a month, which became six months, which became two years. Various levels of lockdown were implemented and life with masks and sanitiser was the new normal.
At first, what now seems irrational, purchasing of open-toed shoes and cooked roast chicken was banned. Beaches were closed and people were only allowed to exercise at certain times of the day.
Van Wyk said: “These seem bizarre now but in the beginning, nobody had a clue what the virus was about. Wisdom comes with hindsight but at the time one couldn’t expect government to really have known better.”
The ban on alcohol and tobacco sales spawned a robust black market which survives to this day. Cartons of cigarettes sold at 10 times their value at times and undercover booze sales made entrepreneurs bucketfuls of cash during lockdown. Social distancing became the norm and nobody ventured closer than two metres to another.
When unbanned, restaurants spaced tables two metres apart, retailers were limited by the number of people allowed in stores and so, too, were malls.
Healthcare was an immense effort, with field hospitals constructed, health workers and, in some cases, even civilian first responders and first-aiders activated to deal with the anticipated crisis. And it came, en masse.
The healthcare system was at times overrun, oxygen became scarce, healthcare professionals died along with their patients. The first wave of infections peaked in July 2020, with the country experiencing several subsequent waves driven by various factors, including the emergence of new variants and the relaxation of restrictions.
Weekly, then monthly “family meetings” with the president became the norm. Lockdown levels varied, freedoms came and went. Companies went bust.
In South Africa, about two million jobs were lost in the first year. Many businesses closed. South Africa’s gross domestic product declined by about five percent. When vaccines emerged, mass vaccination efforts quickly became the focus, with a few supply chain hiccups at first.
First seniors, then specific age groups, in descending order, were allowed to get the jab. Massive vaccination sites were opened.
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Van Wyk said: “It was unbelievable, it was mass mobilisation of the population like we had never seen before.”
After a while, fatigue became a bigger problem for his staff than infection: “People willed themselves to come to work, to save lives. It was incredible.”
It was only in the middle of 2022 that restrictions were finally lifted and life went back to sort of normal. Covid gave us the new normal and the cocooning phenomena has not disappeared completely.
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– news@citizen.co.za
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