One calamity after the other, this is what SA has gone through since Covid’s patient zero

Little did “patient zero” know when he stepped off his plane in South Africa, after returning from Italy in 2020, that he was carrying the little-known Sars-Cov-2 virus, which causes Covid.

And it was on 5 March, 2020 that then minister of health Zweli Mkhize announced its presence in South Africa. Patient zero was quickly joined by many more – with Ugandan-South African scientist and researcher in HIV prevention Dr Gita Ramjee being one of the first notable people to die from Covid-related complications.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, almost 100 000 people had died of Covid by Friday in SA. Like a cyclone, like the plague it was, Covid swept through the country.

It did not discriminate between rich and poor – with symptoms ranging from breathing with difficulty, coughing and being feverish. Wearing of masks, social distancing and sanitising of hands soon became a new way of life – nonpharmacological interventions set to be with us for years to come.

And instead of banding together to fight a common enemy, the world initially became polarised, with rich nations only taking care of their own and African countries being left to fend for themselves. So said University of South Africa political science professor Everisto Benyera.

“Covid resulted in the resurgence of nationalism and a decline in shared mu ltilateralism,” Benyera said.

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“Each country looked at its own interests first, yet pandemics are a global challenge. Covid falsified the idea of collective security.

“Poor countries were more exposed than rich countries, as poor countries lacked the ability to quickly organise themselves against a common threat,” said Benyera.

“The pandemic also demonstrated how weak public health institutions were in Africa.”

Today, economists Thabi Leoka and University of Johannesburg economics professor Peter Baur say the South African economy is far from fully recovered after the enormous Covid pounding it took.

The sector most impacted by the pandemic was tourism, because of limitations on who could travel, said Leoka.

“When we had stricter lockdown levels it was virtually impossible for people to travel, with countries putting up stricter barriers as more people got infected with the virus.”

Leoka said the tourism sector was yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels.

“The other [sector] was beverages – especially alcohol – because there were times during the lockdown when alcohol was banned,” she said.

“That sector had no consumers to sell to and alcohol being unsustainable to keep in storage for long.

“If you look at the unemployment, inequality and poverty trends, they were all moving in the wrong direction, even before the pandemic,” Leoka said.

We can’t completely say the pandemic caused all these problems, but it accelerated them.

“Countries that made sure that they supported their economies, small businesses and their citizens who were adversely impacted by Covid, will see a much stronger growth.

“If you look at the forecast from analysts, Treasury and the Reserve Bank, our growth is going to be quite feeble in the next three to four years.

“The overall impact was quite devastating, but it does not remove the fact that we were in a rut before the pandemic.”

On lessons learnt from the pandemic, Leoka said it was important for the country to have health buffers, through increasing health supplies.

“We had a situation where doctors and nurses did not have masks, gloves and other personal protective equipment.”

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Baur also said tourism was the sector hardest hit by the pandemic.

“The reduction of tourism was especially bad in the arts and cultural sector, with entertainment curtailed.

“Investment and business confidence experienced downward surges for a long period of time – impacting future investment.

“Households and small business were impacted because of the increased impact of unemployment – putting huge pressure on household income and many people unlikely to find work.”

On lessons learnt from the pandemic, Baur said: “Covid showed us that we could work together as a nation. We really made a difference by collectively working towards this objective.

“Everyone tried really hard and we really pulled through this with incredible determination and drive.”

• Alert level 5 – midnight 26 March to 30 April 2020; Alert level 4 – 1 to 31 May;
• Alert level 3 – 1 June to 17 August;
• Alert level 2 – 18 August to 20 September;
• Alert level 1 – 21 September to 28 December 2020;
• Adjusted alert level 3 – 29 December until 28 February 2021;
• Adjusted alert level 1 – 1 March to 30 May 2021;
• Adjusted alert level 3 – 16 to 27 June 2021;
• Adjusted alert level 4 – 28 to 25 July 2021;
• Adjusted alert level 3 – 26 July to 12 September 2021;
• Adjusted alert level 2 – 13 to 30 September 2021; and,
• Adjusted alert level 1 since 1 October.

– brians@citizen.co.za