Do you remember the nationwide curfew? The travel bans? The closing of places of worship? By the way, why was the church labeled ”a non-essential” in times of a global crisis?

The pandemic made us realize how ”essential” and ”non-essential” a people or institutions can be! Personally, I realized how our health workers are frontline soldiers that put their lives on the line to support a country.

As the rest of the world was taking public health, social and economic actions to respond to Covid-19, here in Kenya we immediately turned a public health issue to be about law and order. The fight to control the spread of the virus was about law and order. The security forces were deployed to enforce the law. Which law? I asked, because, in the case of Malaria, I have not seen police being sent to houses to enforce the use of mosquito nets.

On curfew, we had the normal operation of businesses interrupted, major highways experienced traffic and people stayed till mid-night held hostage in traffic. Our ”normal” became ”unusual” with people even asking if the night presents more opportunities that increase the risk of transmission than daytime.

Questions were asked not because people couldn’t understand the dynamics and the risks presented by the virus, but because the issue was all about ”law and order.”

As we mark 2 years since the first Covid-19 case was reported in Kenya, and with the latest revision of the existing Covid-19 containment measures, that came as good news to many, there is a need by the government to accelerate vaccine access and equity across the country.

And this is why,

China has gone into lockdown after a surge in Covid-19. It has placed all 17 million residents in one of its biggest cities under lockdown, as virus cases doubled nationwide to nearly 3 400 and anxiety mounted over the resilience of its ‘zero-Covid’ approach in the face of the worst outbreak in two years.

So as you unmask, remember at the end of the day, the responsibility rests with you and I not to lower our guard.