I heard of Covid-19 in my country Zambia in early 2020. When news broke out about the new disease, we thought it was one of those things, like Ebola, which only attacks a few. You could rarely see people masking up, sanitising or even socially distancing.
It was just a disease in Asia, not scary to us in Africa. We knew little or nothing about how Covid-19 was affecting the lives of many.
By February 2020, it started to click within us, that actually Covid is real, but we were certain it will not touch the African soils, not to mention Zambia. Until a Covid-19 suspect was reported, and our hearts trembled.
After thorough tests and examinations of this suspect, and that he actually didn't have Covid, people laughed at how in Zambia, of all places we could have Covid.
By mid-March, a family had returned from France, and we heard that after health surveillance and checks two tested positive to Covid-19, and the people started to learn what a face mask could do. Institutions started to print information on the symptoms and dangers of Covid-19. It was something scary, but again our fears where not that much.
We took Covid seriously the moment the first Covid related death occurred. And we knew, this thing is real. At first we could only hear of numbers of cases rising, until then we started putting faces of people we knew who had Covid and others succumbing to it to these numbers. We now began to take it serious, wearing masks, less movements, sanitising, and many other health guidelines.
In 2021, notable figures where mentioned to have had covid, whilst others died from it, others survived. By June, 2021, things where getting out of hand, even the closest of friends were having Covid-19. Until even I tested positive to Covid-19 on 19th June 2021, it was scary, I lost my sense of taste and smell, was coughing and mild flu.
How I am coping with Covid and Treatment I have been receiving.
At the time of writing on 30th June, I was still positive with Covid-19, I did my second test after my positive result and it still came out positive. How I am managing is just by taking precautionary measures and cough and cold syrups.
My routine everyday is that when I wake up in the morning at about 6:45 I make my steaming mixture (mango leaves, guava leaves, nihm tree leaves and lemons) and let it boil in a huge pot, then I get a blanket and cover myself for about 10-15 mins until am dripping moisture off my body. By 8:00 I take my cough and cold Syrup, and after having a meal, I have hot water drink.
The whole day is just characterised by taking remedies, and keeping warm. My mask is always on. It is not easy to treat something this strange, but you just have to manage, to survive.
Covid-19 is real, and kills. Take care and be safe....