ASYMPTOMATIC
THE cheap booze in early October. The
owner said his club had become a
‘scapegoat’ as SA began hurtling
Citizens threw the term around, towards a second wave. Everyone
scientists wrangled with ratios, else said it was a disaster that could
and by the end of the year have been avoided. But over the next
estimates of how few months, many venues behaved in
many cases the same way.
were asympto-
matic ranged
from one in
five (20%) to UBER EATS
four in five
(80%). Clumps of men on scooters became
a common sight as the taste for

OF
home-delivered food hit a high during
the lockdown phase when restau-
BOOZE BAN rants were still shut but
takeaway food was reintro-
duced. And we weren’t the

COVID-19
SA experienced two
bans on alcohol only ones: Forbes reported
sales during the that customers had risen by
pandemic, and 30% in countries where the
research that app is active.
excluded other
factors showed
21 unnatural
deaths a day were VUVUZELAS AND
prevented as a result. VACCINES
Some South Africans took to
tooting vuvuzelas daily at
CORONAVIRUS 8pm to honour
TO COVID-19 healthcare workers.
As news spread
It didn’t take long for South Africans later in the year of
to dub the new disease 'rona', but for three candidate
vaccines that

What we’ll always remember

the most part, people initially referred
to it as the novel coronavirus (of
which there are at least 12 that affect
humans, ranging from harmless to
deadly). Then, on February 11, it was
named Covid-19 by the World Health
Organisation.
were proving
hopeful, healthcare
workers were named by the
World Health Organisation as those
from the year of the pandemic who should be first in line for jabs.

DEXAMETHASONE Text: Tanya Farber Graphic/Layout: Nolo Moima WET MARKETS

IN WUHAN
This isn’t a new drug
but lay people Many people had
heard about it for
ISOLATION mainstream some years ago, it was an QUARANTINE never heard of
the first time unusual sight. But soon, surgical masks Wuhan before
when the began selling out when the first Covid-19 arrived.
The zeitgeist of mental This is what
corticosteroid Covid-19 cases caused panic. It did But soon, the
health in 2020 was happens when
proved to be a not take long before South Africans image of an
made up of feelings of you've been
game-changer for were producing masks from seSh- infected bat in a
isolation, despair, exposed to
patients who had weshwe and other beautiful textiles. wet market in the
existentialism ... and a someone else
been admitted to hospital with Chinese city captured
tendency to look in who’s positive
Covid-19 and needed a ventilator. the world's imagination. Others
the fridge for the and you’re
Their risk of death was reduced by a bought into the conspiracy theory
answer. obliged to break any
third. NDZ potential chain of transmission. that the virus had been deliber-
It’s also what you’re obliged to ately created in a Wuhan lab.
These three letters do if you’ve travelled in or out of
EPIDEMIOLOGY JOBS became the the country.
common curse of
smokers after XENOPHOBIA
Many people had SA already had an
co-operative govern-
never applied their unemployment
minds to analysing crisis but 2020
ance and traditional affairs minister REMOTE WORKING “We must act now to strengthen the
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma banned immunity of our societies against the
how diseases are knocked us sideways, virus of hate.” These were the words
cigarettes and refused to budge. All One of the most profound effects
caused, spread and with 2.2m jobs shed in of UN secretary-general António
domestic trade in tobacco products of the pandemic on everyday life
controlled, but 2020 the second quarter of the year, Guterres when it became apparent
was banned as of March 27 and was the way in which many people
changed that. Epidemiology became according to StatsSA. Among the that anti-Asian sentiment had grown
resumed only on August 18. Prior to work. Commuting, office-sharing
a mainstream topic of conversation worst hit were domestic workers: as Covid-19 spread - helped along by
the ban, the illicit trade made up 35% and face-to-face meetings had
and tension. Many became more between the first and second US President Donald Trump who
of the market, but manufacturers of been part of their lives for
familiar with terms like 'case fatality quarters, 250,000 lost their jobs. referred to it as “kung flu”. In May, the
legal products became nervous that decades but suddenly
rate’, ‘comorbidities’ and ‘zoonotic even after the ban, bootlegged UN released a statement saying:
diseases’. working from home
cigarettes would eat further into their “Migrants and refugees are among
became mainstream. For
KHAYELITSHA market. many workers, however,
those who have falsely been blamed
and vilified for spreading the virus.”
FLATTENING THE this was not possible, and
The sprawling Cape
CURVE Town suburb became
they had to embrace the
risks of using public
the first township to ONLINE SCHOOLING transport and working in close YESTERYEAR
Many moaned that the virus didn't go
confirm a positive case proximity to others.
away in spite of the lockdown, If you had R15, would you rather spend
of Covid-19 on March 28. 2019 soon felt like a
leading experts to explain repeatedly it on a loaf of bread or 500MB of
Before that, the virus had been foreign country.
that the idea was to slow the spread data? The year deepened the
detected only in wealthier people People adapted
so hospitals could get
systems in place and not be
who had travelled overseas. In digital divide for children as SOCIAL DISTANCING AND to the changes
those with better resources
overwhelmed.
September, when the peak had
were able to shift to online
THE SECOND WAVE that lockdown
passed, Khayelitsha had seen more brought but
than 8,300 confirmed cases though learning, then hybrid school- looked back
Alongside handwashing and
the actual number was probably ing when lockdown levels through rose-tinted
mask wearing, social
GINGER much higher. shifted. For many others, school
distancing quickly lenses. It suddenly
days were simply lost as the cost seemed absurd that less than a year
became one of the
of data made online learning impossi- ago, ‘normal life’ included hugging as a
The spice was touted most commonly
ble. But from primary to secondary to form of greeting, dinners with the
early on as a LOCKDOWN tertiary education, 2020 will be
mentioned health
extended family, crowding into pubs
‘preventative’ protocols. The stringent
remembered as the year that changed and clubs, sitting in the stands with
against Covid-19, Perhaps the word of lockdown made social-
- for better or for worse - the way we hundreds of other parents at sports
but it turned out to 2020, lockdown for SA distancing a way of life. But
think about educating the next days or taking a sip of someone else’s
be the tip of the was announced by then, in the latter part of the year, when
generation. drink.
fake news iceberg President Cyril Ramaphosa the lockdown level had been relaxed, the
that would see in late March. It began at country was hit by its second wave
conspiracy theorists running riot while midnight on Thursday March 26, was which in some provinces was already
people died. initially supposed to last three weeks PANIC BUYING worse by mid-December than the first
and became one of the world's wave. Social distancing was more ZOOM
strictest. The hard lockdown, relaxed The gold rush in SA had difficult - but just as crucial - during the
second wave, and became one of the
HEALTH-CARE after 35 days, was alternately nothing on the toilet
biggest challenges as SA entered the
It was business on
praised as a critical health interven- paper rush that ensued the top and pyjamas
WORKERS tion and slated for wrecking the when it became apparent a festive season. on the bottom for many
economy and livelihoods. lockdown was looming. as remote working kicked in, leaving
While many developed a new Equally memorable were the queues thousands of commercial properties
appreciation for front line outside liquor stores after President gathering dust in central business
THE TIN ROOF
hospital staff, others
MASKS Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement districts. Terms like “you’re on mute”
showed disregard by that a 21-day lockdown was to begin or “we’re losing you” became
ignoring protocols to at midnight on March 26, bringing The Cape Town nightclub common parlance while colleagues
Overseas arrivals at became the poster child
stop the spread. By with it the booze ban. But most caught glimpses, often for the first
airports were the first of superspreading when
mid-September, 260 worrying on the health front was the time, of one another’s family mem-
to be seen in face- scores of children - mainly
health-care workers had sudden rush on sanitisers and masks, bers, pets, plants and piles of laundry.
coverings. Unlike in matriculants - crammed in for a
succumbed to Covid-19. as those who could afford it stocked Shares in Zoom started the year at
many Asian countries, night of partying and the promise of
where masks entered the up way beyond their needs. $0.60 and by October hit $570.

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