A British medical team posted this picture on social media, urging people to stay home. In Britain, as well as in Malaysia and in most countries around the globe, governments have ordered people to stay home to try to stem the rising number of Covid-19 cases. Photo: Reuters
I woke up last week to grim news: 368 deaths in Italy in 24 hours on March 16. “It’s happening, ” I told myself as I felt my stomach knot. “It”, Covid-19, is crushing communities, tearing across the planet with unstoppable force. To face a real pandemic – after hearing of the possibility in public health for years – seems surreal.
There’s no quick fix to stop this. The cat is out of the bag – that cat of containment. The problem is among us, unseen and growing, like a terrorist threat. We have no idea what follows next. Modelling done before for pandemics was based on influenza. There’s no saying whether 20% or 60% of the global population will get infected, say experts. Whatever, it won’t be pretty. We can just hope for fewer infections with a warm summer.
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