Places to watch out for in Covid-19 period

"Imagine dying of an overseas disease when you never intended to travel abroad in the first place, let alone possess a passport!” is a meme that has been trending on social media.

The tragedy of Covid-19 is, it can find you even when you are keeping safe at home. Below are risky places to watch out for.

Barbershops: They serve many people daily. Because of the nature of the task, barbers cannot observe social distance when shaving. The virus could, therefore, move from a single barbershop to the entire household and beyond.

Beauty salon: Need we say that women at the salon need that chumminess for their tête-à-tête as part of “norms” when it comes to plaiting of the hair?

Without appearing to be stereotyping, the rending saying in the streets is that darkness is an ingredient to mutura (blood-stuffed sausage); so is mushene (gossip).

Open-air markets: Who can save us from the maze of a mess that goes on in our marigiti? The pandemic is said to have its roots in the ‘wet market’ of Wuhan, China. It seems that our open-air markets, though not “wet”, could be the Covid-19 hotspots due to lack of social distancing. Was the first Kawangware victim traced to the Kawangware market?

Transport: When it rains and people scramble for space so as to beat the 7pm-5am curfew imposed by the government in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus, social distance is forgotten like the foliage of youth.

Service providers and users alike can be hard to control. How does one control those boarding matatus, tuk-tuks and boda-boda (motorcycles)? The matatu terminuses are, indeed, hard to control since here is where crowds meet to catch the bus to and from their various destinations.

So as not to blame the matatu owners or passengers, we can only say that this is a Catch-22 zone. The matatus want to make a killing; the more the passengers the higher the returns.

Likewise, the passengers want to get home quickly and don’t mind being bundled together. So how do we control for social distance in these spaces?

This takes us back to zero, and it is worrying whether we shall ever regain our freedom if each of us don’t do their part.

Are matatu saccos doing enough to see that all this is controlled? It is our collective responsibility as citizens, remember?

Estate kiosks: Particularly in densely populated areas, if the shopkeeper contracts the virus it could spread like bush fire, considering their huge clientele.

And there are more of these. Ours being largely a ‘kadogo’ (subsistence) economy, everything revolves around small but sure bits. We, however, can act big and follow the safety guidelines.

Coronavirus lurks in the corner, so keep safe and maintain social distance. Remember to wash your hands properly, wear your face mask and sanitise.

Ashford Gikunda, Sam Okoth & Ross Diana Awuor, project planning and management master’s students, University of Nairobi