DEAR EDITOR – As a concerned citizen, I am truly convinced that we are not ready for COVID-19 known as the coronavirus.
We lack the health capacity to deal with this pandemic. It is my prayer that God will save this nation with his miraculous deliverance and stop this threat from reaching our shores.
My message today is a warning for our government and the people of this nation.
I had been following news and articles on the web on the effect of COVID-19 and I want to highlight three important points for consideration.
Financially it will cost our government, business houses, and men and women of this nation.
It might look small now but it is going to explode in a few days or months.
Consider other countries like China, Wuhan city starts with 100 positive cases and it rapidly increased to thousands.
Is this a warning for a small state like the Solomon Islands with half a million populations?
I am not a specialist on this, however, my imminent fear is for an outbreak of COVID-19 in our local communities and is transferable to our locals.
If that is the cause, I believe we are not capable of considering the standard of living and more importantly our setting.
At the moment we do not have a testing machine or a lab, based in Honiara.
This profoundly indicates that our health generally is at stake and our government is not serious about the general health care of our people.
My concern is on testing. Do we have to wait for weeks for the test result or do we need to have one lab here in the Solomon Islands?
I understand it might not sound easy but if the government of the day is more concerned about the people and consider as the government of people this is an imminent threat now and we must be pragmatic and realistic about this pandemic.
The suspected cases that were tested negative are official ones.
Be aware that this is not the true result of positive cases in the Solomon Islands and I am afraid to say this.
Rationally this has been the case as we do not have the medical capacity and specialist to deal with this threat.
We rely on oversea labs and this is not a good indication of a sovereign nation.
Solomon Islands, where are we heading towards?
I think we are heading towards a wasteland, a land that there is no hope and death is the only words that are left to be thought.
Thirdly, there are two substantially important points I would like to make mention of this regard.
One is when Wuhan locked down there are five thousand positive confirmed cases and European countries with many more cases than Wuhan.
Solomon Islands is just half a million population and should we wait for a positive case before we take such approached?
In Italy, it only starts with one Isolated person and now 16 million were quarantined, perhaps they are not ready for this pandemic.
Solomon Islands what does this indicate to you? “We must act now.”
Every day we wait is more expensive than the previous days.
This is not an issue of waiting as we already experiencing a rise in demands for goods and materials necessary at this moment.
The demand for masks is skyrocketing as well as the price.
Shops will soon run out of goods and people will be starving in a few months’ time.
This pandemic is causing a lot of constraints in our country and we must be proactive about the situation and do what is necessary to keep our economy and country going forward.
Charles Olovikabo
Honiara
