“I bought coronavirus from a shop”: the words stopped me in my tracks.

It was Nana Esi, our neighbour, recounting to my mother how she contracted the deadly Covid-19 pandemic, after her recovery.

She said during the lockdown, she visited the neighbourhood grocery shop - yes, the very one we all buy from- to get some items for dinner and while she was being served, the groceries seller sneezed. Without washing her hands or even sanitizing, she continued to serve her. She [the seller] was not wearing a mask, neither was Nana Esi.

Days later, Nana Esi fell ill. After trying several diagnoses without any recovery, she decided to take the Covid test and when the results came out, it turned out positive. After her disclosure, I was as shocked as she was when she found out the details of her result.

Yes! It is that easy to contract the coronavirus; things we deem too little can really expose us to the virus and cause great harm but unfortunately, Covid-19; the dreadful pandemic is now being downplayed because restrictions are being eased.

People are failing to observe the precautions especially the use of the face mask [which most persons have turned into chin masks]; talk less of washing the hands.

Up till now, there are people who still doubt the existence of the virus but the fact that the country’s case count keeps rising and the death toll is steadily increasing should be evident enough that the Covid-19 pandemic is real.

The last time I checked, Ghana alone had recorded 43,505 total cases of Covid-19 [as of August 24 ] from its initial two cases [first ever recorded] with 261 deaths.

This should tell us that the pandemic is not here to joke and we must do everything to keep safe from the virus.

But, somehow, somewhat, I am quite proud of the virus. It taught us some lessons; it taught us new ways to live; ‘the new normal.’ We learnt to do things differently.

What am I talking about? The digital way we adopted in conducting our activities.

It was fun, doing all the things digitally: working from home, our online lectures, church online, banking online, and the likes, and of course, it was possible.

However, my little disappointment is the fact that we did not learn to completely adapt to these ways Covid proposed to us.

Nonetheless, I also understand, Covid-19 cannot keep us captive/indoors like prisoners forever.

We needed to open up and embrace the new normal; after all, I had missed the outdoor life and I know you did as well.

Well, I don’t want to believe that Covid has come to stay, however, until we find a vaccine, we must learn to live with it and we can do so by strictly observing all the precautions.

We need to properly wear the face mask [not chin mask] at all times, wash our hands frequently, use our hand sanitizers, avoid hugging people, observe social distancing, etc, first of, to stay safe and also to drive out the virus completely.

Now that the restrictions are being eased, let’s bear in mind that our lives are in hands and it is our responsibility to ensure that we are always safe especially from the deadly virus.

So, while we go about our daily activities, let’s be careful not to contract the virus and most of all, let’s be careful not to buy coronavirus from any shop.

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Jessie Ola-Morris is a 3^rd year student of the Ghana Institute of Journalism.