Kwabena Amikaketo sat in his favourite chair on his balcony, viewing the dark sky in the harmattan night of mid-January. It was about an hour after dinner and he chose today to come here after meals because he had to first listen to the President’s delivery on his twenty-second update on measures taken against the spread of the Coronavirus.
So from where cometh Covid-19?
Kwabena Amikaketo wondered whether to believe the conspiracy theories about Covid-19 which suggest that the virus was made in the laboratory to reduce the world’s population, or to accept that it was a natural occurrence emanating from mankind’s carelessness in relating to God-given and blessed nature, or to accept that God sent this down to punish mankind for our waywardness, especially in no longer accepting His word, but even doing exactly what He decreed us not to do.
Kwabena Amikaketo dismissed those so-called prophets who came ever year to prophesy events for the coming year, but has twice in succession forgotten to prophesy about Covid-19.
Covid-19 is the newly discovered member of the large family of Coronavirus that is known to cause illnesses ranging from common cold to more severe ones like Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
However, some people are emphatic that this virus was developed in a laboratory with the sole aim of reducing the population of the world – a kind of bio-chemical warfare – and in all this the African population was targeted.
Kwabena Amikaketo wondered whether God actually allowed this to happen to mankind.
Kwabena looked up into the dark sky and prayed humbly to the Lord God of Hosts, begging Him to tell His people something about this Covid-19. He requested the Lord to show a sign that will reveal the mystery of this pandemic.
He then thought he knew why God was silent. Man had relegated God to the background. Today, curriculums in most schools, and in fact some nations across the globe, had deleted religion from the syllabuses.
God who created man and saw that the works of His hands were good must be very unamused as this human is now telling God that He made some mistakes. So it was now wrong to obey the statutes of God’s laws.
Infant sacrifices which He abhorred and punished nations for in the past are now legalised in the form of abortions. As for sexual impunities, man is telling God that Sodom and Gomorrah did nothing wrong to merit that destruction, and today humans can decide what sex they belong to. God’s decisions no longer count in this modern day and age. That might be the reason why God is silent.
Observing the Safety Protocols
Kwabena Amikaketo watched the President earlier that evening when he updated Ghanaians on the Covid-19 pandemic. The old man recounted how the number of active cases was low some weeks ago, but now getting close to the figure of 2,000.
In fact, four months ago, Ghana was in the lower half of three digit figures, and many were those who were sure that by December 2020, we could be in the two digit figures. But that was never the case.
Ghanaians went on to abuse the safety protocols with political gatherings, beach parties, funerals and weddings and what have you. The total infection to date of 57,714 cases makes up about 0.18% of the total population.
The upsurge in the Covid-19 cases in Ghana was indeed worrisome. Even though we are still at the tenth position of infected nations in Africa, with Uganda some 19,000 cases below and Kenya some 41,000 cases ahead, it should not give us any grounds to jubilate in carelessness.
Today, putting on of face masks is not an obligation, but soon it will be self-mandatory when close friends and family members start getting infected and even dying.
Kwabena Amikaketo wondered why Ghanaians are very reckless in such matters, even as to defy presidential mandates on how to conduct themselves in accordance with obeying the safety protocols in order to halt the spread of the pandemic in the country.
Now that more deadly variants of Covid-19 devastating the West have landed on our shores, if care is not taken and Ghanaians go it busy as usual, the country will be thrown into a state of gloom and devastation.
And trust Ghanaians, most people will then start blaming the President and government for not managing the Covid-19 pandemic well. No one will own up to the deadly turn of events; the blame will be placed on of the President.
Even during those gloomy days of the early stages of the pandemic, when it became mandatory to put on face masks in public, two self-acclaimed Christians were on television, defying presidential orders to put on face masks. They claimed that as Christians, they were in the Spirit and so nothing can touch them, and that there was nothing like Covid-19 in the world. Even when God decided to send down the last plague on the Egyptians, which resulted in the death of all first born Egyptians and their animals, He demanded that the Israelites should take precautions. Why should the Chosen people take precautions when the plague was not targeted at them?
We had in our midst a Covid-19 variant which attacked mainly the older population and people with some underlining health conditions. Now, just landing on our shores are Covid-19 variants which are not only more deadly, but do not discriminate on which host to attack.
Earlier, Ghanaians were made to believe that the virus attack could take within a week or two before death struck. But now it has been reduced to just a few days with the new variants that originated from the UK.
Kwabena Amikaketo mourned an acquaintance who was diagnosed of Covid-19 and died just after three days. The President’s directives must be adhered to unless Ghanaians want to go for another lockdown. And this lockdown is going to be more intense than the first. There could be a total lockdown, where even movements in cities and larger towns would be restricted. This lockdown could take months, because these new variants are very difficult to control.
Maybe families should start stockpiling foodstuffs and provisions for the possibility of another lockdown, this time, which could last months.
Prevention of Covid-19
The West did not understand why the Covid-19 did not devastate Africa in view of the fact that it is the continent with the poorest health facilities. The continent stunned the world with recorded cases much lower than expected, and currently having total recorded infection cases of 3,280,155, which would place Africa, as a whole, at the sixth position behind the United Kingdom and ahead of France among the world’s most infected nations. The Dark Continent’s infections account for only 3.43% of the world’s total.
Today, there have been vaccinations against the disease going on in the West and parts of the East, but none in Africa. Kwabena Amikaketo crossed-checked on the covid-visualiser app, and it showed that over 40 million people in the world have been vaccinated to date, and not a single one vaccinated in Africa.
It is very obvious that the super powers were bored about Africa’s cheeky defiance against the pandemic and will want to get their people vaccinated, so that the epicentre of the infection will be in Africa. And with the new variants coming out, the expected tens of millions will start dying in Africa, so that at the end of it all, Africa will record the highest infected and death rates in the world.
Kwabena Amikaketo wished he could have access to the media. He would advise all Africans, through Ghanaians, to take all the precautions and respect the safety protocols.
Kwabena knew that if this virus had attacked Africa before the White Man came, our ancestors would have found a cure. It is never too late, and it can never be too late, with all the good plants God has planted on African soil.
Firstly, to know whether one has been most likely infected, once you are up from bed, stand on your feet and take a deep breath, and with your mouth firmly shut, hold your nose tight for at least fifteen seconds. If you do not feel any discomfort in your lungs, like sharp pains, coughs, etc., then you are good to go. If any discomfort arises, go immediately for a Covid-19 test. Kwabena Amikaketo remembers to do this exercise as and when.
Then there was this fresh onion therapy. One method is to slice fresh onions and place them in the bedroom. The other is to slice it and spread it out on a pillow case or linen cloth and place it on your chest and put on something to hold it up and just go to sleep. This vegetable draws bacteria and virus from the environment and body.
There is also the hot water therapy, where water can be boiled with neem tree leaves, onions, ginger, garlic, prekese and others, then with a blanket or thick cloth covering the face the steamy concoction, which should be in a bucket or any container, is inhaled into the lungs. This therapy can be done, at least, twice a day, morning and just before one goes to bed.
Regular taking of hot pepper soup or tea, especially green tea, is most advisable. Kwabena said to himself that while Africans are waiting for that vaccine, we can use what God gave us to combat the pandemic.
He rose and went to bed when he heard his beautiful Echelle demanding to know why he was out on the balcony at that time.
Hon Daniel Dugan
The post Memoires and Lamentations of Kwabena Amikaketo (28) And all about Coronavirus (Covid-19) appeared first on The Chronicle Online.
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