Coronavirus

While lockdown is easing here in Britain, across the world coronavirus cases continue to rise. In some countries, like El Salvador, health systems have been overwhelmed. In others, including parts of India, strict lockdowns have had to be reimposed in parts of the country. Across Africa, infections are rising rapidly.

Pneumonia is killing 2,000 people every day. But not because of coronavirus. For nearly twenty years, millions of children have not had access to the patented vaccine manufactured by Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline due to its high cost, which has generated billions in profit for those corporations.

Every morning, Google Alerts connects me to news coverage of Lesotho, a small southern African country that I’ve visited regularly since the mid-1990s. Over the past couple of months, the new lexicon of social distancing, lock-down, PCR testing kits and PPE shortages has threaded through the nation’s press, a striking reminder that the coronavirus pandemic is truly global.

This article is part of our interview series, Southern Perspectives on the Coronavirus Pandemic,

In recent weeks I have interviewed several social movements activists and NGO campaigners in Bangladesh about the impact of coronavirus on their country. Many are fearful to speak publicly, especially to members of the foreign media and NGOs, about their concerns and views over their government’s approach to the pandemic.

Displaced communities in Calais are on the frontlines of the global Covid-19 pandemic. The migrants living in precarious conditions at the UK-French border have been left without support and are facing hostility and violence from the state. I’ve been volunteering in Calais and have seen first-hand how the outbreak of coronavirus has rendered an already bleak and desperate situation far bleaker. We must stand in solidarity with migrants in Calais and everywhere.