Covid-19: We celebrated too early

The prevalence of Covid-19 has more than doubled from the 16 cases that had government officials thumping their chests until recently.

In fairness, government must be commended for what it has been able to do so far in the containment of the virus; it could have been worse.

At least authorities here did not adopt the same attitude as Tanzania's President John Magufuli who declared his country "coronavirus-free thanks to prayers by citizens”.

From 5 April 2020 to 21 May 2020, no new cases were recorded and the total remained at 16. Between then and yesterday, new 23 cases have mushroomed up like an atomic bomb had gone off.

There are only two possible dynamics to this. It is either that our testing regime is working effectively and thus detecting Covid-19 where it exists, or laxity has occurred somewhere to allow the virus to return home like the prodigal son in the biblical book of Luke.

Be that as it may, what matters most in this moment is to up the tempo in the fight against this common enemy.

While context differs from country to country, there are enough templates from which we can adopt our own strategy to fight this disease.

There is thus no need to panic and embark on another wave of dreadful decisions that would cost jobs and paralyse the economy.

Government must find a way in which we cohabitate with this virus cautiously.