Covid-19: we are not yet out of woods

South Africa looks “virus’d out” as people start voicing doubts about the severity of the Covid-19 disease pandemic – and get complacent when it comes to sanitising, social distancing and mask-wearing.

A survey by the University of Johannesburg and the Human Sciences Research Council shows that 40% of South Africans believe the pandemic threat is “exaggerated”. The findings show confidence in President Cyril Ramaphosa and the job he is doing managing the crisis had dropped by 20 percentage points to 65%.

People are feeling less scared than they were at the beginning of the Level 5 lockdown in early April. Those findings accord with what people are seeing: less mask-wearing, less adherence to social distancing, less hand-washing, more reckless behaviour like large gatherings in enclosed spaces and boozing, which reduces inhibitions and, therefore, hygiene vigilance.

It is apparent that many people think the pandemic has run its course and that we are out of the woods … but the experts believe the opposite could be the case and that societal relaxation could result in spikes in infections, if not the dreaded “second wave” of cases.

We agree with the government and experts on this – well aware that we will be accused by some of the conspiracy theorists of cooperating in the “suppression” of the human rights of South African citizens.

The crisis has not been well handled anywhere in the world – of that there is no doubt. However, the preponderance of evidence is that the containment regimes – from sanitising to mask-wearing – do help reduce the rate of infection. More importantly, they protect the vulnerable. By not sticking to the rules, those lives are at risk. You may not even be aware you’re infected … but you might kill someone else. Why would you want that on your conscience?

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