Truly a Big Friday

It is a fluke of the Maltese language that the Maltese for Good Friday is 'the Big Friday'. No other language we know has that take on the day – in Romance languages such as French or Italian, the day is called Holy Friday. Coming to think of that we do not know why it’s called Good in the English language either.

Whatever the reason, Big, this year it is living up to its name. Holy and Good it definitely is not, not with Coronavirus ravaging so many countries and killing so many people.

The numbers we are now seeing may have been expected, as the health authorities are saying (they even say they were expected earlier) but they tell us just one thing – we are nearing the peak. Up to now we have no idea how long will this peak last and, more importantly, will our healthcare system cope with the peak? There is still the possibility the system will collapse under the strain, just as it has collapsed in other countries.

The controversies we see around us, in the press and in the social media, evidence increasing panic in the population. Hence the recurring claim of deep differences between the health authorities and the head of government. Hence the paranoid focus on asylum seekers and open centres.

It is a fact that the contagion is spread by contact with infected persons who may not even know at that point that they are infected. This is the peculiar perniciousness of Covid 19.

Hence the recommendation to enforce social distancing. Those countries which enforced this, even draconially, and as early as possible saw the pandemic brought under some sort of control. Those that dithered, that brought in other considerations, even that pooh-poohed the pandemic, lived to rue their obtuseness – or rather their people suffered.

But let’s widen the focus – those who went for walks, went shopping, had meetings with people outside their immediate families contributed as much if not more than political leaders not up to the level of competence expected from them.

There is, one has to say, a wide insouciance in the Maltese, the foreigners who still remain and the greater part of migrants, who may not all have the language skills or the level of communication to understand the risks they face. They may also be emboldened by the other lockdown breakers they see around them.

Whatever the reason, Big, this year it is living up to its name. Holy and Good it definitely is not, not with Coronavirus ravaging so many countries and killing so many people.

Or their sane respect for the forces of law and order may have been undermined by real contact in their personal lives.

Whatever, our focus right now must be to contain the spread. We are still in time to do that; the rest comes later. It is true there may be infected people around but if they are found out they may be isolated and contained. If they are not found out, they will continue to infect others with terrifying multiplier effects.

That is why in other countries a complete lockdown was enforced from Wuhan to Codogno in Italy. It would have made sense, for instance, to order the whole of Gozo under lockdown and have the sister island declared as Covid-free but we seem to be late.

Those countries which are ahead of us have also found it useful to continue and even deepen the restrictive aspects of lockdown when they are coming out of the worst bit. Those who did not so see the virus coming back. There is a certain loss of personal freedom in this but maybe when we start seeing the dead being carried out of nearby homes we will regret not being so rigid when we still had time.

The thing is that modem technology could have helped us such as mapping an infected person's whereabouts when that person was infecting others. Other countries have tried this but we seem to be late to consider it at least.

Typically perhaps, our reaction as a people so far has been mired in controversies mostly on partisan lines, xenophobia and the like rather than practical steps and doing what needs to be done.

We exempt from all this the health authorities who have been doing miracles with so few means.