Jessie kalepa. Malawi
03/04/2020
As of 31st March 2020, Malawi has no any confirmed case of the Coronavirus but preparations and prevention measures are being put in place by the government. A lot of partners such as the United Nations, UKAID through Department for International Development and also Jack Ma foundation have made donations to help Malawi prepare and also implement the preventative measures. On the 20th March the President declared a State of Disaster which has called for emergency response from all relevant sectors. All schools and colleges have been closed and all students returned home, shops, banks, hospitals have installed hand washing facilities to encourage the frequent hand washing behavior, government has also setup quarantine centers across the country and some testing laboratories.
On 27th March the Government instituted measures in the travel and transport sector. These measures include suspension of all cross border buses, restrictions on public transport, 60% reduction of passenger number in public transport, no animals are allowed in public vehicles.
Despite that Malawi has no confirmed case at the moment my work has been affected I was working in Mozambique from February and had to return because of the COVID-19. Not only that my day to day activities have been affected because I have to protect myself from the virus cannot travel any how or visit congested places and at random times I have been paranoid. Looking at the community at large this pandemic has affected the business community as some businesses have shut down. Most people in the rural communities haven’t been affected much as some of them are not still aware of the situation but the government has began awareness campaigns.
In a long run this pandemic will affect small business: some people depend on them for survival and in case Malawi has a confirmed case and we lock down it will be a tough experience.