According to an article published on The Washington Post’s website on Monday, Chile has been entertaining the idea of issuing "immunity passports" to survivors of the novel coronavirus.
On December 31 last year, China alerted the World Health Organisation (WHO) on a few cases of an unusual pneumonia in the Wuhan city. To date the virus has infected over 2.6 million people and killed over 185 000 globally. However, over 714 000 people have since recovered from it.
In South Africa the picture is different. We are under national lockdown and the numbers are sitting at 3 953 confirmed cases, 75 deaths and 1 473 recoveries. It brings relief knowing that what is being done seems to be working.
The "Immunity Passport" would be issued to anyone who contracted the virus and recovered. The belief that you cannot contract the virus again after recovering from it still subject to testing and debate. The passport gives the holder the following freedoms:
Freedom to move around anywhere during a lockdown because they cannot contract or spread the virus.
Freedom to return to work.
Countries such as Germany, Italy and Great Britain have considered the idea of issuing the passports so that normalcy can be restored. The United States of America is also busy weighing this idea. South Africa has not indicated whether this is being considered or not.
Even though this may seem like a good idea, it will create a lot of other problems in South Africa, because, firstly, people would want to contract the virus with the hope of recovering just to get the passport. Our death numbers will, therefore, certainly increase. Also, discrimination and inequality would become a problem. People would be treated differently depending on whether they hold the passport or not. Even employers would probably prefer to hire a passport holder over someone who doesn't have the it, which is pretty much what is happening today.
South Africa is known for its corruption, so fraudulent passports would surface and people who don't have Immunity would be able to simply purchase one.
This idea would bring additional problems rather than a solution, and so because of that, this may not be such a good idea.
Images: jagranjosh.com
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