Covid-19 Lockdown Fever Grips PH Residents

The tension generated at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic seems to be reverberating across the nation, following the new upsurge in the pandemic.
In Port Harcourt, residents are already under the grip of palpable tension, over the possibility of a return of the lock down scenario and its untold consequences.
With the latest report of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, there is the rise of fatality in the pandemic especially among prominent Nigerians, who are already hounded by the disease which is now evidently man’s most mortal foe, that seems to defy solutions, posing the greatest threat to humanity. In Port Harcourt metropolis and its environs, residents are already deeply apprehensive, loathing the possibility of the sordid experience of the immediate past, that displaced the people.
A random interview by The Tide, reveals that there is palpable pall of apprehension on the part of the residents, who said they were still picking the scraps of their lives from the ravages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A food vendor, Mrs Ihifiwa Joshua said she and her family were yet to recover from the tough times of the Covid-19 pandemic. “I have been in this business for many years and my entire family including my relatives survive on it, but things became too difficult for us during this Covid-19 to the extent that I closed down, after eating up my capital during the period of lock down; I borrowed money to start up again and I do not want that experience again”.
Another respondent, Mr Desire Okeke, also expressed fear over the possibility of a lock down as a result of the new case of Covid-19 in the country.
Okeke, who is a herbalist said, it was not good for the government to just relax and wait for western solution to the Covid-19 pandemic, stating that more attention should be given to research in indigenous medicine to solve the medical challenge, especially some that appear intractable like the Covid-19 pandemic.
Mr Godwin Namane who also spoke with The Tide said the resurgence of the pandemic poses grave danger to the people and urged the government to handle the issue with care. He said, “it is most unfortunate, that there is a new phase of affliction by Covid-19 in Nigeria. We are struggling to come out of our experiences as a result of the series of lock downs. It is not something that the people want to experience again. We want the government to give attention to the measures of addressing not just the pandemic, but the social consequences of the pandemic, such as palliative distribution, rehabilitation which have made the people to be more afraid of the lockdown than Covid-19 itself.
Another respondent, Mr Desire Okeke, also expressed fear over the possibility of a lock down as a result of the new case of Covid-19 in the country, Okeke, who is a herbalist, said, it was not good for the government to just relax and wait for western situation to the covid 19, pandemic, stating, that more attention should be given to research in indigenous medicine to solve medical challenges, especially some that appears intractable like the covid 19 pandemic already had abiting effect on the populace, as signified by the doldrums preceding this years yuletide.
“It is already, few days to Christmas, but the normal Euphoria that characterised chrismas is not felt because of the effect of covid 19, the important thing is to be alive”.
Mrs Owunari pointed out that it was extremely difficult for parents to cope with school resumptions because of the interruptions and challenges of the moment.
“It was not easy for people like us that have four children, to get them back to school, its only God that helped us to cope with the tasks of paying schools fees and making daily provisions for the children and the entire house hold.

By: Taneh Beemene