By Farouk Araie
Dear beloved fellow South Africans, this is an impassioned plea to all to adhere strictly to the solemn appeal of our Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, to take the monumental spread of the second wave of Covid-19 seriously. We are witnessing death on a daily basis as friends and family members become grim statistics in a biological inferno that is creeping into every neighbourhood in our virus-infested landscape.
The deadly virus began as an infection below the medical radar screen, morphed into a biological storm and has now transformed itself into a viral tsunami that is battering the entire country into a medical disaster zone in an orgy of infections and deaths on an unprecedented scale.
A critical situation has arisen as the escalating emergency spirals out of control. A contributing factor in this deadly equation is non-compliance by many citizens of pivotal lockdown rules. It is suicidal to blatantly ignore instructions that are a matter of life and death.
Handwashing and physical distancing are appropriate but insufficient to provide protection from virus-carrying respiratory microdroplets released into the air by infected people.
Airborne transmissions probably are the most likely mechanism that could explain the exponential increase in infections ravaging epicentres and hotspots.
The lack of understanding and preparedness for the second wave of Covid-19, plus the frightening trajectory of the virus, have contributed to the current surge of shattering proportions. Critical messages to the masses have fallen on deaf ears. Our ignorance of the current evolving situation is truly profound and extremely distressing.
The nation at large has achieved a huge degree of awareness on the threat posed by Covid-19 in the first surge, but sadly, the majority are widely ignorant and many blatantly defiant.
We have reached one of the most dangerous turning points in our national history; our survival is at stake, our sacred lives are in jeopardy, our livelihoods have vanished, our future is in peril and the only way to defeat this approaching vile intruder is to banish it from following our footprints by remaining safe in our homes.
There is a microbe waiting to invite you for a rendezvous with death… Briskly reject the invitation. Your home is your sanctuary.
The Star