Take care, Covid-19 is around despite end of curfew

When President Kenyatta lifted the Covid-19 pandemic-inspired curfew the country had been subjected to since April 2020, there was an eruption of relief that transported people in hordes to entertainment places they had missed for so long.

Traders were happy. Transporters were happy. Night travellers and workers were happy. Police were not happy, and neither was Health Cabinet Secretary Mutahi Kagwe, but for completely different reasons.

Police were upset that their gravy train had suddenly been halted, cutting off generous supplies of illicit cash. The Minister was apprehensive that the considerable gains the country had made to contain the spread of the virus and limit the transmission to acceptable levels would be quickly eroded exactly because Kenyans could throw caution to the wind and unwind with abandon.

He was proven right the same night of October 20th. Bars were full. There was no social distancing. Revellers had no masks on (as could be expected). They were high-fiving and generally hugging and keeping up close and personal. It was impossible to sanitise repeatedly under the circumstances and even washing hands was an after-thought.

Bars stayed open so late that the Minister had to remind people the following day that it was the curfew that had been lifted, not the rules on when bars can open and close. 

Fearsome threat

The Minister certainly feels that he carries a personal responsibility to protect Kenyans against the Covid-19 virus. With good reason. Since the battle to hold off the pandemic started, few have spent as much time understanding the virus and exhorting Kenyans to shoulder the responsibility of protecting themselves and others from getting infected. He became a fixture on media channels, which all politicians love, but he perhaps could have wished it was because of more uplifting reasons than announcing numbers of infections and deaths. 

The curfew is now over and Minister Kagwe has been faded out of the television screens. But he will be back very soon if the abandon with which we are going about our lives is not checked. 

Covid-19 remains a fearsome threat and will be around for the foreseeable future. Reasonable public behaviour remains the most potent response mechanism – wear masks, wash and/or sanitise hands, keep social distance, etc. And masks are worn to cover the mouth and nose, not on the chin.

We are very far from achieving the ultimate vaccination target of fully vaccinating all Kenyans and even when we do record this milestone, the health protocols must remain in place. Double or single dose full vaccination is no guarantee for safety. Even when fully vaccinated, one can be infected.

It could be quite silly to point at the vastly improved heath delivery services that have been rolled out in the past 18 or so months as sufficient protection against the virus. Yes, the Ministry will preen at the fact that almost every county has better facilities now than at the start of the pandemic.

There are more general ward and ICU beds (although having a bed alone is not enough as ICU is a process), more level 4 and level 5 hospitals with capacity to handle sophisticated procedures; a vastly improved oxygen supply at hospitals across the counties; and a much more elaborate understanding of the disease by our health workers.

Another lock-down

But however comprehensive the health care delivery system is, it cannot be a substitute for prevention. One does not need to have been infected to experience the pain and discomfort that comes with infection. 

Families suffer pain. The cost goes beyond the financial, which itself is quite hideous. So avoid the possibility of mass infection, which inevitably will invite another lock-down.

Meanwhile, Minister Kagwe and his colleagues on the national committee charged with coordinating the response to the pandemic stand commended for the realistic advice to the President to lift the curfew and allow people to go about their businesses. This they did knowing that there was still real danger of the infection numbers shooting up again.

But although the advice was realistic and expected, they must retain plans to continue encouraging and, sometimes, coercing Kenyans to do the right thing. We should all hope that the worst is behind us but that could be silly.

We are going to see increasingly larger crowds as political campaigns hit a crescendo. We are back to church in full and we attend funerals with abandon. These are not encouraging developments but we all know what to do to avoid the Kagwe press conferences and grim updates.

The writer is a former Chief Editor of the Nation Group and is now consulting. [email protected], @tmshindi