What will it take to effect the Covid-19 precautions with a third wave looming?

Dar es Salaam. The government on Saturday June 19, alerted the nation of an impending outbreak of the third wave of Covid -19 pandemic encouraging citizens to take all the necessary precautions against the killer virus.

But the warning by the health officials is likely to go unheeded by the general public.

For example, a random survey conducted by The Citizen on Saturday night, the same day the advisory was issued- showed that entertainment spots in a suburb like Tabata which is 9km from the city Centre were packed to the brim by revellers.

At ‘Kitambaa Cheupe’, it is business or booziness as usual, with revelers dancing, hugging, with no face masks, no sanitizing, and no keeping social distancing.

The same scene was at play at ‘Small Planet’ where the small space available around a swimming pool was over crowded as revelers smoked shisha and drunk the night away.

With all caution thrown out of the window, the revelers seemed less concerned of the third wave that the ministry is advising about, and some had not even heard about it, whereas others ridiculed the whole thing calling it a sham.

 Instead, they passionately debated the President's newly released list of District Commissioners which had gone viral on social media.

Some were quick to blame the government why they had kept quiet all that while only to come out now, ‘Where were they all that time?” asks one reveler.

In any case, such was the state of affairs in many bars and nightclubs in metropolises across the country, despite the precautions issued by health ministry on several occasions meant to curb the spread of Covid-19.

 This comes at a time when neighboring country Uganda is already struggling under the weight of the third wave of the pandemic, virtually sending the country’s health facilities down on its knees.

Speaking on the state of affairs Director of Preventive Services-Ministry of Health, Community Development, Gender, Elderly and Children, Dr Leonard Subi said the government would continue to work on consistently releasing updates on the pandemic to the general public.

 “Behavioral change can be influenced by sustaining public awareness campaign and education, and by the help of the media we hope that people would start to take this issue seriously,”

Dr Subi said, adding that, ‘ it’s now for public and private sector to make critical considerations on the preventive measures’.

“Private sectors, social and religious leaders should now take action by influencing communities to take all necessary precautions, by educating, and implementing interventions to protect themselves from threat of the Covid-19 third wave,” he said.

According to Dr Subi the government – working principally through the Health ministry would continue to take other appropriate actions against the pandemic including tightening border security and Covid-19 testing at entry points.

“Every person coming to Tanzania will be tested before coming in, and quarantined when found positive. We also have a verifications process for even for those who come with negative tests from where they are from,” said Dr Subi.

President of the Medical Association of Tanzania (MAT), Dr Shadrack Mwaibambe also complemented Dr Subi remarks saying that the Covid-19 pandemic is a multi-disciplinary issue and it need to be addressed as such.

Dr Mwaibambe said the government has taken a huge step by admitting and acknowledging the presence of the pandemic but now other stakeholders in their respective disciplinary to insisting on  preventive measures.

“We heard there are plans for vaccinations however we don’t know when it will be achieved, in the meantime what we are supposed to do is taking all the necessary precautions,” he said.

“After government admission and update on the fear for a third wave, we expected to too religious leaders, private sectors and professional associations to be vocal on preventative information,” said Dr Mwaibambe.

Being one of the scary epidemics of our time, Covid-19 cannot be controlled by the ministry and the government alone, action is needed from all stakeholders from different sector in the country, the MAT president insisted

It remains interesting whether or not the Tanzanian public will wait to be hit hard by the hydra headed Covid-19 monster before they take the requisite precautionary measures seriously.