December-born Covid-19 is going places. And Saudi Arabia, which is Covid-19 free, is making sure that the novel coronavirus stays outside its borders.
It has banned people from Covid-19-infected countries from entering the kingdom. Saudi Arabia’s fear is that Covid-19 may turn into a global pandemic if restrictions on movement are not imposed.
This is a valid fear, and the rest of the world should respect it. Prevention, as they say, is better than cure. What’s more, the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) statement on Wednesday does see the possibility of Covid-19 turning into a pandemic.
Our global village of seven billion needs to bear this in mind. Close proximity is all that is needed for the virus to spread like wildfire.
Saudi’s fear is backed by statistics, too. While the novel virus that began in Wuhan, China, is showing signs of a fizzle in the middle kingdom — up to Tuesday it reported only 10 cases — “there have been sudden increase of cases in Italy, Iran and the Republic of Korea”, according to WHO.
The virus is also crossing global borders, from Iran to Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman and from Italy to Algeria, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Spain and Switzerland.
Umrah pilgrims may have reasons to worry. Every year, more than six million perform umrah. Pilgrims from Pakistan, Indonesia, India and Bangladesh are among the top five countries making the pilgrimage every year.
Malaysian pilgrims are not far behind. By the kingdom’s calculation, this number is set to rise to 30 million in 2030. In this sea of humanity, the danger of infection is just a sneeze away.
WHO thinks we can win the fight, but only if we do the right things. What Saudi Arabia is doing by banning potential carriers of the virus from mixing and mingling there is one such thing, though this doesn’t come with the WHO stamp.
Other countries must help by containing the virus within their borders. It would be irresponsible, and evil even, for a country to allow its infected citizens to travel to another country.
Malaysia knows this only too well having been hit by Wuhan visitors. Malaysia, which is one of the countries in the visa suspension list, will be well advised to stop people travelling there.
Countries will do well to follow WHO’s advice: every country needs to be ready to detect cases early, to isolate patients, trace contacts, provide quality clinical care, prevent hospital outbreaks and prevent community transmission. But this is after the fact.
What Saudi Arabia is doing by keeping potential infection at bay may appear very drastic, but during emergencies — and Covid-19 is an emergency — has much sense behind it.
Potential pilgrims, too, must be responsible enough not to travel to Makkah and Medina if they display the symptoms of the disease. Or if they have come into contact with people who do have such symptoms.
It must be remembered: Covid-19 takes 14 days to show up. Thermal equipment at exit and entry points may not be able to detect those infected.
It is best to stay home, at least until the emergency passes. It will be irresponsible to take the virus elsewhere.