"COVID-19 Has Come To Equalize Us", Says Miti
As the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the country grow there is much debate about whether the measures Government is taking are sufficient.
As of midnight on Thursday all bars, nightclubs, gyms and other non-essential businesses were closed, with restaurants now only serving take out. Public gatherings including conferences, weddings and funerals have been restricted to no more than 50 people and all non-essential foreign travel is to be suspended. Meanwhile, domestic flights will be redirected to Kenneth Kaunda International Airport for screening.
Opposition UPND leader Hakainde Hichilema has been among those to call for greater measures, including social distancing which appears to have been effective elsewhere in turning the tide of the outbreak.
Civil society activist Laura Miti has highlighted the problem the virus presents for the country, given its failure to invest in local healthcare services, instead opting to spend money evacuating politically connected persons for treatment. As Miti states this is not an option for Zambia’s leadership at this time because the pandemic is global.
Writing on social media Miti states, “I hope government now sees why Zambia should have, long ago, used the money it has blown evacuating the top cream for medical care abroad to improve local health care. OK, let's not ask for too much - to build a world-class hospital just for the President, Ministers and their mates.
Point is, if one of them fell ill now (not necessarily with Covid-19) they couldn't be evacuated, as is usual, because other people's countries have closed borders and their hospitals are busy with their own people.”
Miti has urged the government to take further measures and warned that “This is not the time for baby steps.”
“Please do not gather at all. 50 is too many. Don't go to church, weddings anything. Do not travel to rural areas so that we can maybe contain the virus in urban areas,” she writes.
Arguing that Zambians have come to accept inequality as normal she states, “We have thought it OK for some to build the 10th mansion on public money, to fly abroad for treatment. It's been OK for Ministers to get miraculously wealthy, to suddenly be dollar millionaires and flaunt that wealth… All that, while millions are hungry.”
“Well, now, Covid 19 has come to equalize us. It will visit us in those mansions simply because the poor can't wash their hands or be closed down,” she warns
