Editorial Comment: We can overcome Covid-19 together Caskets bearing the bodies of the three national heroes. — Picture: Tawanda Mudimu

Yesterday we buried at the National Heroes Acre two Cabinet Ministers and a retired head of one of our uniformed services.

All three died last week from complications arising from an infection of Covid-19.

As Acting President Constantino Chiwenga made so clear in his moving funeral address, Covid-19 can strike people from all walks of life, at all levels of society and at all levels of education.

Until the vaccines arrive and become commonplace, no one is immune. The only way each one of us can be safe is if we are all safe.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Dr Sibusiso Busi Moyo, a retired lieutenant-general, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Development Dr Joel Biggie Matiza, and former Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services Commissioner-General, Major-General (retired) Paradzai Zimondi had much in common, summed up in one word: Service.

All three in their youth left home and went to war to fight for their country, their fellow citizens and for freedom. After them and tens of thousands more had won the war, facing terrible risks and suffering heavy casualties, two joined the army as professional officers and the third went back full-time to school to become an architect, before moving back into public service in Parliament and Government.

And it was that culture of service that increased their risks of Covid-19 infection. While Cabinet Ministers can take precautions, and can minimise the risks, they still have an essential job to do.

They cannot isolate themselves. And while Major-Gen Zimondi might have been formally retired he still had his responsibilities as head of a family, farmer and someone many would want to consult.

That culture of service might have increased the risks they faced, and we need to remember the sort of risks they faced as young men fighting for liberty so this was not something new, it also defined them, made them what they were and explained why they were respected and needed. So it is unlikely they would have chosen another path.

They are an example to all of us, continuing to do what they had to do.

But they also show, as Acting President Chiwenga made it clear, that we are all in the frontline in the battle against Covid-19, and we all have to play our part. There are now over 1 000 Zimbabweans who have died from Covid-19, and each has left family and colleagues and friends. They are all missed.

But they come from all areas of life: Ministers and clerks, generals and recruits, rich and poor, managers and labourers. There is no “rear area” to use a military term.

But there are some in special danger as the Acting President, in his post as Minister of Health and Child Care, has made clear.

Zimbabwe is now procuring vaccines, although with the general world shortage our requirements are going to come in batches and our vaccination programme, like everyone else’s, will have to be done in phases.

But we know who is in the front of the queue, the doctors and nurses in the “red zone” wards who have to help those who become very sick with Covid-19.

Then come the rest of the frontline health staff, then will come others who are exposed to higher risks, or whose vaccination will help set up a barrier.

And in the meantime, we are all going to have to accept our personal responsibility to protect ourselves, protect our families, protect our neighbours, protect our colleagues, and protect all who are out there helping us.

The bad spike in infections that hit Zimbabwe this month is partly due to the new and more infectious variants of the virus that natural selection has been generating over the past year. But it is also partly due to the fact that in the last few months of last year, and especially in December, far too many of us became ultra-complacent and very slack.

Yet we are now starting to tame the spike. Rates of new infection are falling, we have fewer active cases, and even our deaths, which spike later than infections since they are among people who were infected a week or two ago, are falling.

The higher level lockdown we moved back into at the beginning of the month has helped. But that is just part of the story. Zimbabweans are generally following the rules and advice, as can be seen if you walk down a street, stand in a supermarket queue, wait for a bus or enter a workplace because you are in a critical area.

A good example is at those police roadblocks, which can take time to pass through since the police on duty are checking everyone. But, unlike past checks, hardly anyone is turned away, because only those who have to be on the road are on the road.

When the police officer walks down the aisle of a Zupco bus checking particulars, everyone passes, simply because no one who does not have to be on a bus has bought a ticket. The checks are still needed as a deterrent, but few cheat.

When you walk down the street, masks are nearly universal, and if your mask slips there are some harsh glares. Those who crowd a bit in supermarket queues are asked to stand back; colleagues at work only smile when you are in a mask.

And so the change is there, and we are starting to bring rates under control, but we have a long and continuous struggle ahead of us.

At some stage we can move down the lockdown ladder to a lower level. That will work, so long as we all maintain the new levels of alertness we have now reached. Meanwhile, the vaccination programme can steadily protect the most vulnerable and create the necessary fire-breaks.

The Acting President stressed what President Mnangagwa has also noted: that we are all in this together, and we have to overcome the threat together, united in all our diversity.

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