The Delta variant however, has a whole different script. It is killing the young people. Initially, we were told to wash our hands and not touch our faces. Now, even when we wear masks, sanitise, and socially distance, the virus continues to be a haunting probability. The reality is that Africa narrowly escaped COVID in the year 2020. This year, the thing has come with a new found wrath and brutality. It has morphed and mutated and is now spreading at the most unimaginable rate. We are failing to contain it.
I keep having to brush aside memories of the Italian president crying about the number of his country people lost to corona virus; how so many people did not even have the luxury of a mortuary stay and a dignified funeral with loved ones; how heaps and heaps of bodies were disposed of in efforts to not spread the virus, but it spread anyway. I try not to think about it because if I allowed myself to, I think I would realize how far worse we are. Think about it: we still attend the funerals of loved ones who are taken by COVID, despite knowing very well that funerals are super spreader events. Our COVID positive loved ones who die, come home for us to bury them. Following the funeral, most people do not isolate for the mandatory time as provided for in the COVID protocols. Instead, we immediately go to the store; or to see our loved ones; or just out to the streets.
