COVID-19: A Deadly Pandemic That Won't Kill Us

I sympathize with families, friends and acquaintances who have lost relatives out of the deadly pandemic, COVID−19. I must say, this is not what any of us anticipated.

When the virus broke out in China, I knew we were not prepared and it was going to sweep us out if it finally roars its head in Africa, Ghana. We all never though it was going to travel with us by air or sea down to our peaceful but unprepared African Country. Sad.

How did it get here?

This virus has been there and the Chinese who have traveled through time and could export to us basic things like tooth picks, enjoyed it sadly. News about Chinese in Wuhan and many other countries dying in hundreds daily spread fast yet we sat here, made noise and jokes out of it. People kept travelling in and out through our porous borders daily. Someone finally sneaked it down here and we are all in a state of fear and panic. Not to panic anyway.

Until today, many people have lost the need to be educated regarding the deadly pandemic. People are carelessly roaming the streets of areas marked hotspots in search of what words can’t describe.

Nevertheless, COVID−19 has had many positive mindset among the many and I must say, if Ghanaians had responded to the lessons learnt in these few weeks earlier, nobody would have been indoors crying because there is a ban on travels, bars closed, Churches and Mosques non-operational. For a long time we are learning positivity and becoming patriotic. I have watched the news where Kasapreko we know to produce Alcohol and bitters meant for men potency quickly switched their marketing strategy to produce hand sanitizers in mass quantities. I have witnessed individuals and homes producing hand sanitizers when the demand went high and prices hiked.

COVID−19 has installed the habit of maintaining proper hygiene and cleanliness into many Ghanaians most especially our market women and people who use public toilets. We are thought to regularly wash hands and sanitize our hands each time we have contact with people. Many of us who have maintained the habit of only washing hands after eating have adapted quickly and have conformed to what the break out of COVID−19 has taught us. Drivers, their conductors and commuters have learned the carless sneezing and coughing into people’s faces. People have learned how to keep their breath away from others in order not to transfer any bacteria to the next.

Barely Eight (8) months to the general elections in Ghana, our media is sanitized and there is a conspicuous silence on our waves. The early morning chants and rants from two fronts has ceased. The usual banter and throws, the catch and throw backs, the defensive mechanism and the desire to lead or mislead have subsidized in the wake of the pandemic. I must say, as humans as we have been, we need not to have a break-out of a pandemic before we do the right thing. We need not as Teachers, Doctors, Nurses, Bankers, Lawyers, Parliamentarians, Farmers and all stakeholders, wake to experience a pandemic before we institute measures in helping to build our Country. We need not have to wait for COVID−19 to knock on us before we pray and fast for our country.

We all need to collectively sit, retrospect and reflect on what we have done to this country. If our Hospitals are in good shapes with adequate beds; our doctors equipped well and resourced to work always, I am not sure we would be having a second thought as to which country we will be flown to incase we test positive for COVID−19. We can be our own China, we can be our own United States of America and we can be our Ghana. We can build our Schools, we can build our Hospitals, we can halt the corruption and we can all wake up to understand that, whatever good or bad we do, we do for ourselves.

Let us all be discipline enough, remain in our homes and stop the spread of the pandemic. Let’s also remember that “We move, the virus moves”

Wisdom Bonuedi

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