EDITORIAL: Beware, COVID-19 Is Real!

BEYOND punitive measures against infractions to COVID-19 laid-down protocols and regulations either through Presidential Executive Order or other bodies of laws, the more reasonable option to embrace by all at this stage is the caveat that life has no replacement. Hence, we should all guide and guard jealously our breath of life.

As reports have it, within the past week that the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 announced the index discovery of the B1.1.7 and B1.351 strains and variants of the pandemic in Nigeria, five cases have been diagnosed in the State of Osun. These new variants are deadlier, more contagious as they spread like wildfire and kill faster. 

Earlier, we witnessed, sadly, how the state recorded five deaths within few days, arising from Coronavirus. Much earlier, at the turn of the year, we bore the grief of losing a number of eminent personalities who shone as leading lights and bright gems for the state during their lifetimes. Unarguably, we lost them to the scourge!

At this juncture, all we owe one another is adherence and strict observance of all laid-down instructions and directives to forestall further spread of this pestilence.

Last year, we saw the precarious effects of repeated lockdowns. The vestiges are still very much present with us. Nobody wishes to have a taste of stay-at-home again. However, an adage that says “heavens help only those who help themselves” is never of greater relevance than now. The Biblical injunction that, “obedience is better than sacrifice” now reverberates and speaks louder.

We are all enjoined to cooperate with government at all tiers by living within the tenets of laid-down instructions, so that we could issue riddance to the pandemic in good time. Having paid the dues, we could carry on with our normal lives in no-distant future.

We shall not die of cursory/accursed plague. We, however, owe this covenant responsible citizenship and extra vigilance.