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By Abdellatif Sharaa
is natural for human beings to be apprehensive towards anything they are not familiar with or used to, even if it is to their benefit, and things become worse when it has to do with a natural phenomenon or a pandemic, which we are currently going through. We are lucky as advances have been made in the scientific domain and knowledge has expanded about discovering things and how to deal with them, and all we have to do is listen to advice and behave accordingly.
I went to a cooperative society three days ago and found things were much better than at the start of the pandemic. There were no crowds, and I was told the entrance was moved to the side where chairs were arranged with safe distances between them. A smiling young man approached me and asked me for my civil ID very politely and asked me to take a seat.
I noticed another man was calling names, then when my name came up, I approached the entrance, where I was met with hand sanitizers, gloves and a sterilized cart with its handle covered with a plastic sheet, in addition to my body temperature being checked. This is an assuring act and it is as recommended by healthcare professionals in an attempt to avoid transmission of the virus among people, and it's a measure that must be adhered to.
Despite strict measures that are being taken, we are still witnessing the appearance of new cases. When we thought the numbers were gradually descending, Health Ministry Spokesman Dr Abdullah Al-Sanad told us on Friday that the number of new cases discovered within the past 24 hours reached 75. Very alarming, isn't it?
So, we must be careful and not let down our guard for a second, as human nature calls upon us. Most of the new discoveries were among residents of buildings where large numbers of people dwelled, where one or two COVID-19 infected persons transferred it to hundreds of others.
We must exercise patience and must follow instructions more closely and to the letter, starting with the request to "stay home." Staying home is not an incarceration - it is for our safety. Staying home is an assurance; staying home is a management; staying home is healthy; staying home is the most potent remedy against our common invisible enemy.
I call upon authorities to seriously consider isolating areas as many countries have done, which had promising success, as the case was at the source of the virus. Government and people must be proactive and come up with measures that may cause inconvenience for many, but this inconvenience will be temporary and normal daily life will be restored. Cooperation and common sense bring results - good results at that.
"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so we may fear less." - Marie Curie
