I find it extremely amiss, particularly peculiar and utterly amusing how seemingly very passive and nonchalant we have become as a country. Some months ago, when we were recording 50 and 75 cases per day, we cried bloody hell! We took precautions and called for stringent measures to be enacted to seek to quell and mitigate the spread of the virus. Fast forward to today, we are no longer reporting 50 or 75 cases daily. We are recording and averaging a whopping almost 1,000 cases daily. Jesu-willikins, people! This is a tiny country with a little over 400,000 plus people. So the fact that we have reached a precipitous point of almost 1,000 cases daily in a very short time, is no doubt alarming and should be cause for grave concern.

I am utterly appalled and sorely disappointed how we have arrived at this juncture with seemingly, absolutely no care in this world! How?? Like, how?? Covid-19 is an extremely deadly and serious virus and mustn’t ever be taken lightly. The Omicron variant is extremely contagious and highly transmissible, as is evident, and we are just lax— totally unfazed and unbothered! Hmm… just imagine, we are now averaging almost 1,000 cases daily and we just move about comfortably and we simply lap our tails and bite in our lips and shirk it off like the Marvelous Miss Maisel? Something is seriously wrong with us, I swear! 1,000 cases, yes, let me reiterate, 1,000 cases is a whole lot, and these numbers are very, very alarming.

Then to further compound this rather fluid and seemingly sisyphean issue is the fact that schools just reopened a week ago. For the first time, in a long time, schools welcomed back children into the classroom for in-class learning, but it comes at a crucial time. I am sorry, but recording almost 1,000 new infections daily, due to a variant that is highly transmissible and extremely contagious among children, we are really playing cat and mouse with the collective health and safety of our students and teachers. It’s not merely 37 or 59 cases daily. It’s a whole 1,000 new cases reported almost on a daily basis this week. I mean, what are we waiting for? Enact some stringent measures to contain and mitigate this fourth wave.

See, it’s not just an increase in cases, it’s a new wave that is fueled by a new and highly transmissible variant. And pay keen attention. Since this week, we are averaging almost 1,000 cases daily and we haven’t even gotten a mere peep out of the government. They have remained extremely mum and silent on the matter —no press conference, no public health update, nothing consequential or of value except the scripted daily report that only further adds credence to the point that the numbers are alarming, further fueling greater public concern.

Let me tell you something: the silence on the part of the officials is not only deafening; but rather disheartening! We need to hear from our policy makers. We need some sort of  elucidation and clarification. We need information to go on and quite frankly some reassurance that they are doing their best to control and mitigate the widespread proliferation of this virus. Listen, people’s anxieties are getting to them, and they need some form of updates, reassurance and explanation. It’s unfair to the masses that we are now recording and averaging almost 1,000 cases of new Covid-19 infections daily and we are expected to skip along smartly like some sort of happy-go-lucky folks ? No, Sah, with these numbers, that won’t work!

The people of this nation are at an increased risk! Now, some teachers are becoming more and more concerned, and quite frankly are extremely anxious with each passing day that they have to report to schools with these increasing numbers. Some parents are concerned, and the children are at risk; and as a country, we have got to do better than this. I implore that we batten down the hatches and implement some form of measures to seek to bring the numbers down. These numbers are alarming, and if we don’t act swiftly and decisively, there will soon be hell to pay for our inaction and sheer ignorance to a deadly virus which has proven time and time again that it respects no one or no boundaries. Nicolee Muhammad, a seasoned and career educator, asserts, and I quote, “it’s never too late to learn, but it can very well be too late to live”. Therefore let us act conscientiously before it’s too late, because education cannot trump health —sorry!

Unchained Reflections Of A Liberal Pragmatist.