Is COVID-19 over? Or is it still lurking in the shadows? An African response to the pandemic
Channel: AVG News
Date: 2022-07-02

The Higher Education Media Services Zoom webinar. 
Covid19 has been termed a ‘clever virus’ for good reason.
In recent times most of the affected global societies have started to scale down on measures to combat the pandemic which has infected 65 million worldwide and killed 5.6 million people. 
South Africa this week removed mask mandates and crowd restrictions at public events. But are some societies over hasty?
The virus, however, is like a streetwise criminal and is still skulking around and displays an ability to strike out with renewed vigour at unsuspecting communities just as the pandemic is being redefined as endemic.
In it’s evolution, the virus has spawned many variants. In a scary development, a recent report in The Lancet, one of the world’s foremost medical publications, scientists claimed there could be a link between Covid19 and the outbreak of Hepatitis among children in several countries. Inexplicably, 3000 monkey pox cases have been reported worldwide. It’s as if Covid has opened a Pandora Box!
In countries like the United States and elsewhere, the virus has once again spiked and killing more people at a moment when health authorities believed that anti-Covid19 measures could be dispensed with.
China has been the exception. With its zero-tolerance to Covid19 infections, it resorted to what many termed drastic measures by locking down entire cities as large as Shanghai with a population of 20 million people.
It’s sole aim seems to be to limit the spread of virus and limit it’s mortality rate, especially among the most vulnerable. 
The policy has been implemented even at the cost of economic growth.
Has China’s zero tolerance policy succeeded?
The latest stats give the answer. China has by the end of May recorded 1.21m cases and 5226 deaths. Comparatively, the United States has recorded 84 million cases and more than 1 million. For a country a quarter of China’s population, the numbers in the United States are horribly skewed.
It begs the question: is China’s zero tolerance policy the correct approach to stop the virus and other pathogens lurking in the shadows?
Is a zero-tolerance approach practical in a country like South Africa? Or is the abolishment of all measures to curb the pandemic reckless?
Become AVG News channel member
Join this channel to get access to perks:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqJcpJfPPzGvM5XxTtnSaqw/join