Despite setbacks and possibly more coronavirus cases, small businesses must be freed up to allow their people to make a living
If there were any doubts about the dilemma that faces governments as they seek ways to open their economies and facilitate some kind of return to normality in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, headlines overnight will help to dispel it.
Just over a week after declaring itself “virus free”, the country was on Wednesday in a desperate search for more than 300 potential contacts of two travellers from the UK who arrived with the virus. They were then allowed to leave quarantine without being tested, and undertook a road trip of about 650km, taking about eight hours.
That would be the wrong lesson. Across the world, the pain of being closed is proving too hard to bear, and that’s not just about economics. The closure of schools is stunting children’s development while placing financial and psychological pressures on households. Children whose parents can afford private education and modern technological gadgets are leaving their poorer peers behind, reinforcing inequality.
We have had three months to get the health system ready for a surge in cases that we always knew would come. This is where government has to be held to account. It’s not surprising that it is politicians who have failed to deliver — such as those in the Eastern Cape — that are making noises about symbolic policy solutions. They want to reinstate the ban on alcohol, but won’t deal with the problem at hand.
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