Wear battle gear to defeat invisible virus

GAUTENG is in the grip of the third Covid wave in all its fury. Within the next four weeks it will probably overwhelm the province and spread across the country.

In a life and death struggle, a deadly war of attrition is in full progress between man and microbe, as the Covid-19 tsunami wave turns our major cities into islands of death and desolation.

A biological intruder has penetrated the landmass paralysing the country as it unleashes its venom on the unwary and the ignorant.

The only safe strategy is to retreat from its trajectory and to wear any battle gear to ward off its invisible beams of death.

The ruthless war between man and microbe is intensifying as the race to contain and defeat the biological storm menacingly looming on the horizon, threatening to engulf the nation, as we slacken our defence, by not adhering to lockdown regulations.

By defying rules and regulations we will all become statistics on a macabre and epic scale.

Medical experts say many people are expected to die from the virus by late this year, and thousands more will be infected; the health system is unlikely to have enough ICU beds, as medical institutions become overwhelmed. Prevent this grim situation from becoming a grisly reality. Flatten the curve by reducing the virus’s reproductive number – the number of other people that an infected person infects.

At a personal level, we can reduce this number by washing our hands and staying home when sick.

Unless and until we rigorously exercise social distancing, we stand no chance of obliterating the menacing third, fourth and fifth Covid-19 waves, from our planet.

Most worrisome for the authorities, however is the Covid-19 “tsunami” effect, the exponential rapidity of spread.

The globe has been plunged into a state of uncertainty and fear by the Covid-19 pandemic, our lives are being impacted in unprecedented ways.

We will pay an astronomical price in human lives, for not adhering to social distancing rules, defiance in the face of a biological inferno, will lead to upheavals on a mammoth scale.

The carnage in human and economic terms, that will follow, will reshape the course of our nation. FAROUK ARAIE | BENONI