How will the developing world cope with COVID-19/Coronavirus?
At the time of writing, on Saturday, 21st March 2020, coronavirus has spread to over 80% of the world’s countries, affecting more than 260,000 people and claiming over 11,000 lives. China, the source of the outbreak, has managed to stop the spread of the virus within its borders but cases in the rest of the world have risen exponentially over the past four weeks. Europe is now the centre of the pandemic and despite all of the developed world’s technology and resources, the virus has yet to be contained effectively in many countries across the continent, especially in Italy, Spain and France. Given the struggles of these European countries, it leads me to wonder how the countries of the developing world will cope with this critical global situation.
I am writing this blog from Sucre, Bolivia so I think writing about the situation here in South America would be a good place to start this blog. Firstly, the virus arrived on this continent on Wednesday, 26th February in São Paulo, Brazil. The person brought the virus from Lombardy, Italy - the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths at over 4,000. This led to some people in Brazil being tested for the virus, including President Jair Bolsonaro who tested negative for it. Despite the arrival of the virus to South America, there was no widespread panic or emergency government response until a couple of weeks later.
Once the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the virus a ‘pandemic’ on Thursday, 12th March, the countries of South America broke into action. By this point, cases of the virus had been confirmed in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Paraguay and Peru. Immediately, Bolivia closed all of its schools and suspended all flights to and from Europe. Colombia declared a health emergency, preventing gatherings of over 500 people and stopping cruise ships docking at any national ports. Just one day later and every country had at least one confirmed case of the virus.
At this point, I was in San Pedro de Atacama in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile. Whilst I was unconcerned about going home, I still felt quite stressed discussing other people’s plans, helping them decide whether to go home and assisting them in finding the most effective way to get home. My plan was to continue onwards to Bolivia for 4-6 weeks anyway so even if borders got shut, I still hoped I would be able to move within the country. A week ago, I hadn’t grasped just how severe the situation was and I can say now that my thinking was very naïve.
On Monday, 18th March, I took a bus from San Pedro de Atacama to Uyuni in southwestern Bolivia. We reached the border in four hours but on the way it had transpired that Chile was closing its borders that day. I then started to wonder whether intercity transport in Bolivia had stopped and got mixed responses from the bus drivers and the Chilean border officers. I decided to take a chance and continued on the journey along with a handful of other nervous travellers. We arrived in Uyuni at 6pm and immediately took a bus to Potosí given Uyuni’s undesirable qualities for a quarantine city. The next day, we scrambled two hours further to Sucre before the government announced that intercity travel would no longer be allowed from Wednesday, 20th March.
Until today, the situation here was as follows. The shops and markets were open until 4pm. Supermarkets had sanitiser at their entrances which must be used by every customer. You could still go and explore the city (which is really nice) and eat at restaurants and cafes during the day. There was a 12-hour overnight curfew from 5pm to 5am during which no one is allowed out on the streets. Today, the government announced a stricter, two-week quarantine where it is only permitted to go to the shops and nothing else. In the wider country, all flights, both domestic and international, have been suspended and there is no other intercity transport. Everything in the future is completely up in the air just like everywhere else in the world. I thought we might be disrupted for a few weeks but it’s starting to feel like it could be months instead.
The situation in the other South American countries is similar. Peru declared a nationwide state of emergency lasting until the end of the month. Chile has declared a 90-day state of catastrophe. Colombia is amidst a national 19-day quarantine. Brazil’s controversial president is probably the only person who has not quickly enforced nationwide measures to control the spread of the virus. In general, however, it seems that the countries here are keen on preventing the spread of the virus as robustly as possible to limit the strain on their healthcare systems.
Now, if you are reading this then you know that I’ve volunteered for Made With Hope for over 18 months and that we work to alleviate poverty in Tanzania. Tanzania confirmed its first case on 16th March and the number of cases has since risen to six. This seems a low number for now but for a country with significantly fewer resources and less money than most other countries in the world, people are already worried about how quickly this number could increase.
What I’ve noticed during my time in South America is that the reasons for poverty here are much different to the reasons for poverty in Tanzania. Tanzania has an extremely harsh climate that consists of two wet seasons in a year that interrupt a practically rainless year. This means that it is very difficult to self-sustain and manage resources that are so scarce. Water is the key to life and in Tanzania there is not enough for people to use for drinking, cooking, cleaning and agriculture. Therefore, there is simply a lack of resources which means the country struggles to provide enough to satisfy its own people.
The same cannot be said in South America. Most of the countries here have better access to water from glaciers and rivers, and the climate, generally, is more tropical which is much more beneficial for growing crops and plants. This means that some countries here, like Brazil and Chile, are considerably richer than most African countries. However, there are still a lot of people in poverty in South America. This is because of corruption, social division and privatisation. Brazil houses some of the world’s most unequal societies, shown by how the favelas of Rio de Janeiro are cut off from the richer city centre. People in the favelas receive little from the government and have no chance of escaping poverty. In Chile, the constitution that was written in the 1980s by a dictatorial leadership is still in place today. Put simply, the constitution protects big, private companies and keeps them in power whilst leaving little for the rest of the population, which is why there have been nationwide protests in Chile for the past few months. Water is available in Chile but is sold to the highest bidders - namely the wine and avocado industries - leaving the rest of the country in drought.
What this tells us is that actually the countries in South America are better resourced both naturally and financially than many countries in Africa, which is vital in reducing the spread of coronavirus. The most effective way to stop the virus’ spread is good hygiene, especially hand washing. For this, you need both a good water supply and soap. In theory, the countries of South America should be able to fulfil these needs. However, in the desert of Tanzania where little rain falls during the year, there is often insufficient clean water for people to be able to wash their hands. Furthermore, many people in developing countries have not been educated about the benefits of hand washing from an early age. Developing these habits requires time in a situation where time is short.
If people in Tanzania, as well as countless other developing countries, can be provided with the right education and resources then the spread of the virus can be controlled, but any action has to be taken as quickly as possible to prevent the virus spreading quickly. With poorer healthcare facilities and a lower standard of living, people in these countries will be much more susceptible to the virus than anywhere else in the world. This is why Made With Hope have launched a “Hand Washing Emergency Appeal” to raise money in order to provide adequate hand washing facilities and clean water to five schools in rural Tanzania, affecting over 1,800 children and their social networks.
If you can spare some money and donate to this appeal then follow the link here. Any donations will ultimately be helping us save lives in Tanzania during this crisis. Thank you in advance to anyone that can donate and pass this message on.
New Hand washing stations
That’s all for now. It’s been nice writing a blog for the first time in months. I guess I was just hoping I’d be blogging in more positive circumstances.
Take care and stay safe,
Ollie