As we can all see from WHO reports and from national sources, the country is finding it difficult to tackle the spread of Covid 19. Yet the health authorities continue to be in denial that the capacity to contain the virus is not in the country or is not with them. There is so much confusion in town as to which way to go in addressing the virus situation. State of emergency after State of emergency the spread continues in the country. The fundamental mistake was instead of addressing the health crisis associated with Covid 19, the government rushed to address food crisis as if The Gambia was in a famine state. Instead of preparing the nation well in advance of the Covid 19’s arrival in the country, the govt was slow in its foresight to do so. The current hurry hurry arrangements are not impacting strongly on the nation’s health. Under such a scary and dangerous trend, it is time for government to flex its diplomatic muscles and request for urgent medical assistance ( team of expert Doctors, technicians, equipment, drugs, etc) from friendly countries like Cuba, Turkey, China among others, to come and help The Gambia to contain the situation. We are a small economy and the fact is we do not seem to have the capacity to fight Covid 19. Other bigger economies have requested for such assistance and why not The Gambia. This is the time for the show of international solidarity and support between Nation states. The nation before politics is the way forward in this pandemic. Let the authorities act now for now is the time.
By DM Badjie, Political Scientist/ Dev. Consultant
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