Please China Spare us Of Coronovirus
Remarks that are coming from government on the country’s preparedness for the Coronavirus are sending a message that citizens are on their own. Last week, Ministry of Health spokesperson Dr Abel Kabalo told the media that although the Ministry could disseminate information on the Cover-19 virus, the responsibility to precent an outbreak lies with the citizens.
“We can disseminate information, we can give all the guidelines but of course, for us to prevent any outbreak, it’s at an individual level to ensure we maintain the highest level of hygiene. We put in precautionary measures whereby if your know that person could have been in contact with a high risk area, you wear masks, self isolate, especially for those that have been in risky places, those are some of the things we are advising” Dr Kabalo said.
It’s not quite clear what message the good doctor was telling us but it looks like he Ministry was looking for an intelligent way of informing the public that it has no plan in place to contain the virus should the situation arise, and as such, it is going to be each one for himself and God for us all. And that doesn’t sound very encouraging.
We agree with Dr Kabalo that citizens need to exercise the highest level of hygiene, especially in the face of this deadly virus that has ravaged a close ally of the nation - China. We also agree that there is need to vigilance on the part of citizens.
But how does it make sense for the Ministry to say that all they can do is disseminate information? Is it normal that government is talking about self-isolation without addressing the continued traffic between the two countries? We have asked this question before: how wise is it to dictate that Zambian students living in China must stay there so they don’t import the virus but the Chinese wishing to come to Zambia are free to do so?
Certainly, this is not a position that we can agree with because it is this kind of lopsided thinking that will see out nation perish, God forbid, should anyone carrying the virus cross into Zambian territory.
The government is fully aware that there is a lot of traffic back and forth between Zambia and China, putting the nation at high risk of letting in infected migrants and causing an outbreak. This alone is reason enough for the government to revise its approach and put restrictive measures in place for travel.
It really is very worrying. Even countries like the UK, that have the capacity to deal with the virus have taken serious precautionary measures, but Zambia is dealing with the global crisis like we know better. The nation should be worried, if we are not careful, Zambia will import the virus and that will pose serious social and economic problems on the country.
Unfortunately, Zambia is so deeply dependent on China that we have no capacity or luxury to dictate anything to our Chinese masters. That is why Zambian students who are at high risk of contracting the virus in China are being told to stay where they are, yet we are welcoming Chinese families and businessmen into our country every day - with 0 medical screening.
If China, with all the resources and technology at its disposal, can lose over 2,000 citizens within such a short period, one can only imagine how many people in Zambia could die from this virus if it came here. Zambia does not have the financial capacity. We can’t even pay suppliers of malaria test kits.
It if for this reason that China must take a step to protect poor countries like ours by advising its citizens to cut on travel. If China means well for Zambia and Africa, this shouldn’t be a difficult consideration to make. We should not wait until the virus is here before we can start asking China to help.
