guest column:Johannes Marisa COVID-19 continues to take lives all over the world with many countries struggling to contain the spread of the virus. The beginning of January 2021 was a misery with increased morbidity and mortality. Our country experienced a sudden surge of difficult and complicated COVID-19 cases that culminated in pressure on hospital beds, oxygen and medications. The medical staff had to endure long hours of work in order to cope with the resultant pressure. Australia’s think-tank, Lowy Institute, has ranked Zimbabwe 38th out of 98 countries globally and 7th on the continent in the management of the coronavirus. South Africa, which received the first batch of vaccines on Monday, was ranked 82nd while Mozambique and Malawi were placed on 26th and 27th positions respectively. While many people in the world thought that our country would be wiped by the coronavirus, we stood tall against the virus. Public health measures like social distancing, wearing of masks, sanitisation and hand washing sounded absurd yet they are of paramount importance if the war is to be won. People should not forget to pray to our living God. He has answers and for those who have been following figures released by John Hopkins University, Sundays have on numerous times, recorded the lowest numbers of deaths. Let us meditate and our voices will be heard. Patience is needed if our fight against the coronavirus is to be won. Unanticipated decisions were taken and everyone should know that COVID-19 is a novel virus that needs exceptional measures. In 2020 words like sanitisation, quarantine, lockdown, social distancing became our national anthem. It was ridiculous for many to wear masks and life seemed to have changed for rural people who would not easily avoid handshakes, especially at funerals. Our culture was surely razed to the ground. Lockdowns were introduced in many countries including Zimbabwe but they were received with mixed feelings with economists arguing that prolonged lockdowns would decimate the economy while politicians thought it was a political game to further the interests of one political party. Medical practitioners saw it necessary to impose the restrictions as they would discourage gatherings. Events in some high-density suburbs where people would gather in large numbers, were a bad omen. The move by the Health minister to introduce the lockdown was a very noble and appropriate action that deserved everyone’s support. Had the country not introduced a lockdown, we could have been saddled with very high morbidity and mortality by now. What is now left is for the nation to abide by the regulations so that we minimise the chances of transmitting the virus to the next person. Schoolchildren should accept that opening of schools before we flatten our epidemiological curve can be detrimental to their health as schools may be super spreaders in no time. Let all of us understand that patience pays. Let our school-going children be disturbed as long as they remain healthy. Development of any sort can only happen where