COVID-19. A denomination for a world epidemic that will live in infamy. In 1918 one-third of the world’s population became infected with a virus we now call the Spanish Flu. Millions died. More suffered. Endless story of those fateful years will forever be told.
COVID-19 is the newest iteration of an age-old foe that was then - and can only be now – halted and forced to retreat by perseverance and the application of every God-given and learned faculty at our dispense. This is the time of fortitude amongst many and the expertise of the willing.
The epicentre of the calamity of our times is not centred at the bottom of our continent, but like a spider’s web its reach grows exceedingly wider as its appetite increase. The community of the North-West University and those it serves is not immune. The latest statistics bear testament to that. However, the precipice of a prolonged descent is being barricaded by – amongst other – a group of dedicated individuals set on stemming its tide.
One such group is that of the NWU’s Professor Dewald van Niekerk who heads the African Centre for Disaster Studies within the Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management at the School for Geo- and Spatial Sciences.
This unit has been running a multi-disciplinary think tank on the COVID-19 pandemic since the 3rd of March 2020. The Centre has advised the Department of Health on the declaration of a national state of disaster, the creation of the COVID-19 WhatsApp service, drafting of the quarantine sites protocols, and lockdown protocols. Currently it is involved in scenario planning and also forms part of the multi-institutional COVID-19 modelling teams.
“I received a call from the national Department of Health asking me to do a presentation on the 5ht of March on a possible epidemic response for South Africa. I had very limited time, so I called together a few colleagues in various disciplines to look at what should be put together and the main things our government should be thinking about,” said Van Niekerk.
“That group of people not only became the think-tank for national government but also for the North-West University,” he concluded.
It is a task not many have or ever will face, but one Van Niekerk’s team is undaunted by. It will be arduous and it will be taxing. Challenges abound: rewards will be found in when normality again becomes the norm.
