South Africans put partying ahead of their own health

When you look at the video – and at the scores of maskless people gyrating at each other’s shoulders – it cannot be said that these sophisticated nightclubbers are ignorant about Covid health protocols.

They live in cities where media are constantly disseminating news about the dangers of spreading the highly infectious delta variant of the coronavirus.

There is only one conclusion: South Africans put boozing and partying ahead of their own health – and the health of others. That is why the Covid infection figures remain stubbornly high across the country and why we are struggling to contain the disease.

Many of the people getting drunk and partying – the very sort of behaviour the alcohol sales ban was meant to counteract – are young and perhaps they feel immortal. Delta, though, is no respecter of age, as we are seeing in the rising hospitalisation and death rates in younger age groups.

Because they are young, many of the partygoers will not have been vaccinated and could, therefore, be aiding the mutation of the virus into new variants, which could continue to wreak havoc; never mind the possibility they will pass the virus on to a vulnerable person.

It’s time to grow up, people…