WE MUST SIMPLY ABIDE
THE $5 000 fine for not wearing masks correctly and breaking the curfew under new Covid-19 measures is long overdue.
The new fees came into effect on Tuesday after Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage Minister Kazembe Kazembe made the notice under SI 25 of 2021.
The new SI now demands all Level 3 spot fines to be increased from $500 to $5 000.
Police also recently introduced stricter monitoring of curfew compliance by both motorists and pedestrians whereby possible arrests and impounding of vehicles were promised.
The new order sees stricter enforcement of curfew on pedestrians and motorists found walking or driving past the 6pm to 6am curfew.
It is sad and unfortunate that people are having to be forced to adhere to Covid-19 regulations.
These regulations and guidelines are there for our own good.
The country is experiencing hundreds of new cases every day and over 50 deaths per day on last week’s figures.
These are dangerous times. We need to do all we can to avoid being part of these statistics.
We need to do all we can to bring down these victims.
And for these numbers to come down, we need to go back to the basics of how to avoid spreading and contracting Covid-19.
We need to be covering our mouth and nose with a mask to prevent coughing or sneezing into nearby people or surfaces.
We need to avoid touching our faces because our hands are the easiest way to spread or catch the virus through.
Washing of hands regularly and not getting too close to people (maintaining social distancing) are necessary behaviours to save our lives.
It does not benefit the government or police to practice the aforementioned regulations. It benefits us.
Please stay at home with your family and even with them, keep a distance out of care that the virus may spread to the people you love the most.
These are precautions everyone — Covid-19 positive or negative — is expected to take to prevent the spread of the virus.
These precautions are not a preserve of the families with a Covid-19 victim or of people going to work, they are measures that the whole world has to take to prevent the spread of this coronavirus.
We should not wait to be fined $5000 or for our vehicles to be impounded for us to practice Covid-19 regulations.
We should not wait to be thrown into prison or to lose a loved one through death for us to take Covid-19 regulations seriously.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) and our Government, through the Ministry of Health, set up these regulations to safeguard our lives and if we care an ounce about our lives, we must abide.