Coronavirus – the next stage, and the one after that

As I begin writing, at 12.30pm on Friday, the news is of 12 confirmed cases of Coronavirus infections, no deaths so far and all cases ‘imported’, ie not home-grown. And patient 2 is out of danger and in recovery.

So far, so good. Better, in fact, than expected. Deep down, however, we know this will not necessarily remain so. So far, the infected persons have been a mix between Maltese and foreigners but they all have been abroad in the past days. Maybe this speaks volumes about the degree of levity about how they treat their lives and those of those around them.

But it will be when we start getting our home-grown cases that real reality will kick in. Given the peculiar quality of this virus we will not know we have been infected before we start infecting others. The time-lag, averaging five days, is crucial. The people revealing they are infected would have caught the bug some five days before if not more.

So we today can assess the state of health five days ago. And so on. Now look back to five days ago and see what we were discussing then.

We discussed cruise liners and got the rather reluctant government to block the entry of a particular one because a passenger who had been on it had been found to be infected after he left it. So the ship was stopped from entering when it was within sight, it went on to Messina and no more was heard about it.

Then we had a discussion about planes from the infected parts of Italy. Again the government was perceived to be rather reluctant but then the Italian government solved matters by blocking all flights from Veneto and closed Malpensa.

Then Giuseppe Conte ordered a lock- down first of Lombardy and northern Italy and when hundreds rushed to the trains to go south, extended the lock-down to the rest of the country so that by the time the fugitives from the lock-down North got home, they found themselves back in a lockdown country.

We looked and stared as the deaths rose to more than 1,000. The lock-down had been brought in too late for them. Now I have just hearing Prime Minister Abela and he has not announced a lock-down. It will only be in a week’s time that we will find out if that was the right decision.

The announcement that all entering Malta have to go to quarantine was taken eg by Israel at least a week ago.

I see from the former MIA CEO that Vienna airport has been totally closed and its employees shifted to other work. Our airport is still open though with less people coming in. Who is right?

Then we had the big school closure debate. At the end it was solved, as so many things were, by other countries from Italy to the latest Germany. And by some schools closing and by masses of school children not turning up.

We also had the head of the nurses union claiming that with schools closing many nurses will not be able to go to work instead of arguing for the setting up of proper childcare facilities.

This reminds me of another union leader ordering teachers, as I understood him, not to correct children’s homework sent by email when this lock-down was a heaven-sent opportunity to develop online teaching which is what all the world except us is doing.

To get back to coronavirus so we now wait for the home-grown type, the one when Maltese persons start infecting each other. We have been quite inquisitive about the foreigners, let’s see what happens when it starts hitting nearer home.

Malta is not new to deadly infectious viruses. Under the Knights people in the villages kept infecting each other by going to the many penitential pilgrimages. But the Knights stayed aloof and were not infected. So too Mattia Preti even though he lived in Zurrieq.

Under the British a strict quarantine was enforced and the contagion was contained.

In 2020 the best advice we are getting is to wash our hands regularly and to keep our distance from other people. And still we flock to supermarkets and such places.

At the end, just as the people get the government they deserve, they get the contagion they deserve. Is it so difficult to obey orders and to stay safe?