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Playing Russian roulette with COVID-19

Russian roulette is a lethal game of chance in which a player places a single round in a revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against their head, and pulls the trigger in hopes that the loaded chamber does not align with the primer percussion mechanism and the barrel, causing the weapon to discharge – Wikipedia

The above in a nutshell is a summary of what exactly is happening in our country concerning the lethal coronavirus which (as at Thursday) has so far afflicted more than 97 million people around the world, claiming more than two million lives.

Of course, the virus, which first broke out in the Chinese city of Wuhan in December of 2019, has not spared Nigeria, which is the most populous black nation in the world, with roughly 200 million people.

Of course, like the more than 219 countries and territories across the world that are battling the scourge, so is Nigeria supposed to be also doing the same in an effort to keep her population alive.

But while Nigeria, unlike many other nations, has largely been spared the huge daily body count of those who have died because of the virus, however, some families are still grieving following the loss of their loved ones due to COVID-19. As at the last count (on Thursday night when this piece was written), Nigeria had recorded a total of 116, 655 cases of COVID-19, with 1,485 deaths and 93,646 recoveries which is ‘fair’ when compared to a country like the United States, which has recorded 24, 438, 936 infections, and a staggering more than 406, 162 deaths – the most in the world.

Incidentally, the fact that these truly horrifying figures are taking place in countries whose healthcare systems are far more advanced than ours should be a source of worry for both the citizens and the authorities.

Sadly, the exact opposite is the case with the government, which should take the lead, pussy footing on taking the painful but neessary measures to curtail the spread with a majority of Nigerians even more complicit.

On January 4, the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, showed that he is not a leader to shy away from taking hard decisions, when he announced a third lockdown of the country. Even though he knew that such a step could be economically disastrous, the Prime Minister really had no choice because he had to weigh which one was more important – saving the economy or saving his citizens. Johnson warned the country faced a very “tough” few weeks as a vaccine is rolled out, with chief medical officers warning that hospitals could be swamped without new restrictions.

“The government is once again instructing you to stay at home,” he said in a televised address. “Our hospitals are under more pressure from COVID than at any time in the pandemic.” During the latest lockdown, people were told not to leave their homes except for specified purposes such as essential work or to buy food or medicines. The measures will be reviewed during the week commencing February 15.

Unfortunately, like I pointed out earlier, despite these stringent measures, the virus is still continuing to wreak havoc on the island nation. Ironically, back here even though the stats are pointing to a looming crisis, governments at all levels have so far refused to take drastic measures to keep the virus in check. Incidentally, this was not the case previously, when a little after a month after the first case was confirmed, President Muhammadu Buhari announced sweeping quarantine for Abuja, Ogun and Lagos in a bid to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. “All citizens in these areas are to stay in their homes.

Travel to or from other states should be postponed. All businesses and offices within these locations should be fully closed during this period,” Buhari said in an address to the nation. As at the time of his address, the nation had ‘only’ 97 confirmed cases and its first fatality, a former employee of PPMC, who died on March 23, 2020.

Then a few weeks later, in another nationwide address, the President announced further measures which affected the whole federation including overnight curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., bans on non-essential interstate passenger travel, mandatory use of face masks or coverings in public, and partial and controlled interstate movement of goods and services. Buhari said the new measures “will be followed strictly with aggressive reinforcement of testing and contact tracing measures.”

By the end of April, the government announced the easing of the measures and by June it was almost back to business and usual across the country. But by the time the lockdown was eased by the end of May, Nigeria still had just 10,162 cases of the virus with 287 deaths.

Now, in just 13 days (between January 6-21), the nation has recorded more than 200 deaths with 20, 721 positive results or an average of 1529 confirmed cases per day! And yet, it is under this clime that the government allowed schools to reopen and has so far shied away from taking sterner measures to tackle the scourge. On Tuesday, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the state’s oxygen need for the management of COVID-19 patients had risen from 420 litres to 2,100 litres daily between December and mid-January.

Insisting that the increase amounted to a 500 per cent rise, he expressed fear that going by current trend, it could snowball to 4,500 litres daily before the month ends. He also disclosed that 9,213 COVID-19 patients were being treated at home, while the state had so far conducted 263,358 tests in private and public laboratories. And yet despite announcing these grim statistics, Sanwo-Olu, like many of his colleagues, has baulked at taking stronger measures to curb the spread of the virus in his state which leads in the number of positive results with 43,251 and the number of deaths 283.

Most people have adopted the stance of “it is not my portion” or “I don’t care” attitude to the pandemic, which is obvious in most of them failing to imbibe the universal safety protocols of wearing a face mask, washing hands, using sanitizers and social distancing.

Thus markets, commercial vehicles, eateries and so on one hardly sees anybody observing them. But this is where governments at all levels should come in to ensure enforcement, if not, the figures will continue to rise, and like the game of Russian roulette, who knows when the weapon will discharge and one goes from being an innocent bystander to a victim!

*NB: All figures quoted correct as at Friday 22nd

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