Posted on: Sun 24-05-2020

As the COVID-19 pandemic virus rages in some areas across Nigeria, there has been marked complacency in others, where public health pleas to stay at home and practice social distancing have been ignored by some.

The “super-spreader” phenomenon, which might end up being a factor with the level of spread of the virus in places like Lagos or Kano where an index patient apparently might transmit the infection to 10 or more persons in a group or crowd, despite having only mild symptoms that did not require medical care.

Given the stealth nature of the virus and the considerable chaos that has accompanied its emergence, it is perhaps not surprising that some people find it counterintuitive that they actually are in a pandemic, even as it accelerates across some states — with Lagos still having the highest number of COVID-19 followed closely by Kano.

The major problem across various parts of the country is that some individuals have become largely complacent in adhering to the precautionary measures against Coronavirus pandemic with people going about their businesses, as if it is business as usual, which is not.. 

Precautionary measures such as wearing a mask while moving around on the streets, physical distancing when you go out, washing your hands with soap and lots of water before and after you enter a place and many more. Most of these surprisingly have been less observed after the initial scare of COV-19.

In Portharcourt for example, I have noticed that people do not all wear masks, those who do just wear them around their chin and walk around, some others only around their mouths. People still congregate in large numbers and go to the markets in large numbers too. Some banks still have large crowds of people inside their halls and outside even at the ATMs, with no social distancing observed. Some shops after the initial scare have largely taken out their water buckets and soaps for handwash before entering, while others have taken out just the soaps and wipes leaving only water for customers use before entering. 

This sad scenario can be attributed to the irresponsible attitude of flouting lawful instructions, breaking lock-down restrictions, rumour-mongering, and politicization of issues when what this dangerous time demand is we all come together, shun politics and collaborate to confront this pandemic and avoid any attempt at creating panic among our people.

And lets not talk about the lockdown of the state, where people still travel around moving in and out. Though its not really so popular, but the Governor in my opinion did good in trying to lock down the state to prevent the spread of COVID19. However, because of politics, personal gains and the destruction of the two hotels that flouted the close down order, many are agaist him for his actions.

The simple truth of it all is "Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don't"

Healthcare Providers

As healthcare providers, we are not happy seeing these, residents across rivers and the country as a whole should  understand that the restrictions and measures were put in place for their own good, hence the need for total compliance to make the state safe for everyone.

But even amongst ourselves there is even some level of complacency in areas where there are few or no reported cases of COVID-19.

For the most part, healthcare personnel and the public have a healthy fear of COVID-19, but in some areas — exacerbated by mixed messages and a shortage of tests and PPE — the anxiety is at the early AIDS level. For example, in the early days of AIDS, a bloodborne disease, there were fears and speculation that it was spreading through the air or other means that were ultimately proven false. With no treatment, a diagnosis in those days was tantamount to a death sentence, and some healthcare workers died of needlesticks and other blood exposures.

A large percentage of staff were panicked to have to care for these patients and when they did enter the room, some wore all the PPE they could find — head covers, double gloves, masks, and booties. Although there was initial concern of respiratory transmission, that was quickly ruled out. However, the fear to care for the known or suspected AIDS patients carried on for years, and now we have the coronavirus.

As we wage this war against the pandemic sweeping across the entire globe like a raging bush fire, we should stop living in denial about the mortal danger of this pandemic, shun baseless misinformation in the guise of conspiracy theories, avoid gathering of people of whatever nature, embrace social or physical distancing, strictly comply with the government’s stay-at-home directive which is not as stringent as in other states, wear face masks and practise personal hygiene by regularly washing our hands with soap and water, using hand sanitizers if available, and, wait for this to come to an end.

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