The Covid-19 shutdown

Amidst the onslaught of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (Covid-19), communal life is in retreat everywhere and hardly any public system will be left standing in the coming days unless there is providential abatement in the global pandemic.

In Nigeria, as everywhere else, all aspects of communal life have shuttered in. Late last week, the Federal Government ordered the closure of the tertiary school system and students were sent home by institutions on unscheduled break – the effective duration of which is made contingent on how the viral pandemic pans out. Earlier, the government had cut short the 2020 Batch A Stream One orientation camp of the National Youth Service Corps (NYCS) originally scheduled to last three weeks. Among other measures, it had also stepped down major sporting tournaments like the National Sports Festival and the National Football League from earlier announced schedules.

At the last count, most states have ordered the closure of education systems under their jurisdiction and that involves both public and private schools. Lagos, which by official account has recorded the highest number of Coronavirus cases, took the wise step as a precaution to minimise the exposure of students and teachers to possible infection. So also did states like Ogun and Ekiti that have recoded confirmed cases. But even states like Anambra, Benue and up north where no Covid-19 case has been reported have taken no chances and preemptively shut down their education systems.

Government has similarly shuttered religious activities that bring more than a handful of people together at once. Lagos State, for its part, dissuaded religious organisations – particularly  churches and mosques – from holding regular gatherings where more than 50 congregants would be present. Some other states were less diplomatic and declared outright ban. And faced with the potency of the Coronavirus threat, most leaderships of the faiths and denominations have aligned their followerships accordingly. The leaderships of most Christian denominations have directed their members to henceforth meet in cell groups, while the National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) was last week reported asking Muslim faithful to meet only in small groups and be prepared to pray privately during the Ramadan, which falls due few weeks away. By all accounts, communal life is in retreat.

Even the machineries of government and international relations are not spared. The Nigerian government has frozen all foreign travels by public officials, besides placing a rash of countries on high-risk watch that entails mandatory isolation of travellers coming in from those countries for infection observation. The two National Assembly chambers have pulled their public galleries and suspended public hearings among other measures, just as some houses of assembly like that of Ekiti State have shelved their activities.

‘The standard antidote to community transmission of Coronavirus is social distancing…(but) this technique has its limitation at the grassroots’

Not a few notable airlines have suspended their services altogether or restricted their operations. Reluctantly, and quite visibly so, the Nigerian government had banned air travel from 13 countries with high rate of infection to stem the spread of Coronavirus. As at the weekend, it had upscaled that to a total ban on flights into Nigeria. But many would argue that it held on too long before doing that, relative to other countries like the United States, the United Kingdom and European Union nations that swiftly slammed shut their gates against inward flights from countries with high number of virus cases. Even in West Africa, Liberia banned all air travel from countries that have recorded beyond 200 Coronavirus cases after its first infection.

All said, however, Nigeria has not done badly in its response to the viral pandemic. The Federal government has been steady handed, yet resilient in policing the track of the virus. And just as it was with the Ebola virus epidemic some years back, this country is lucky to have Lagos State, being the local epicentre of infection, leading the charge. It is to be dreadfully imagined what could have happened if it had been otherwise. The present Lagos State Government, just like its predecessor at the time of the Ebola challenge, is showing the dexterity and competence needed to tame and wipe out this latest viral invasion.

One step urgently needed at this point is to seal up and air-tight the entry point access against Coronavirus at the nation’s borders. Now that we know the virus isn’t imported only by air travellers but over the land border as well, as one of the confirmed cases last week showed, the onus is on the Federal Government to ramp up the screenings as could make them truly impregnable. This is without doubt a tough call, considering the legendary porosity of Nigeria’s borders, but there is no other way around it. Already, the standard tack of contact tracing, quarantining and isolation of imported cases is overwhelmed by the ballooning number of confirmed cases and their likely contacts. It should be evident we can’t hold out for too long on that path.

A bigger challenge, from indications, is how to effectively hold down local transmission of the viral infection. Until late last week, most cases recorded were linked to incoming travellers. But the government eventually announced the confirmed case of a Nigerian male in his 50s who has never left the country and yet tested positive. “What we have is a combination of imported cases and local transmission,” Lagos State Health Commissioner Professor Akin Abayomi said.

The standard antidote to community transmission of Coronavirus everywhere is social distancing as is entailed in the shutdowns we talked about afore. Only that this technique has its limitation at the grassroots as you would see from the following scenarios. It may be easy, for instance, for the Lagos government to shut down the school and congregational worship systems. And really, it may be quite easy to shutter conspicuously located restaurants, social hubs and regulated shopping malls. But pray, how does government shut down the sprawling Oshodi, Mushin, Oyingbo or Balogun commercial centres, among many others in the metropolis where thousands throng unmarked on daily basis? How do commuters social-distance when they huddle in hundreds to await vehicles having seats enough for only tens, which they would have to struggle existentially for when those vehicles come by? And these are scenarios applicable at peculiar degrees to different states.

Thus are we back to the imperative of leashing transmission of the viral infection from this point of its outbreak. China where the whole pestilence started appears to have succeeded in arresting further transmission, to the point that it has reported zero infection rate in recent time. There is much to be learnt from how that country did it and we should waste no time seeking to share its knowledge.

But the real handle to overawe this viral invasion lies with us – individual Nigerians, and not government. We must for all times, and despite the peculiarities of our different circumstances stick to the prescribed rules of personal hygiene: wash your hands frequently with soap and water; avoid as much as is possible touching your mouth, nose and eyes with long exposed hands that are not washed; if you have cold symptoms, stay away by all means from contact with other members of the public; and if you must sneeze, do so into tissue paper that can be instantly disposed of, or if there is no tissue handy, into the nook of your arm, but by all means not into the open air.

French President Emmanuel Macron was reported saying the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on his country – as on every other country – is like being at war. But it is a war in our hands to win. Let’s rise up to it.