He said stigma does in fact perpetuate discrimination.
South African deputy president David Mabuza has said that as a country we need to usher towards a society that is free of a Covid-19 stigma, making it our priority and responsibility.
Mabuza said wherever there is stigma people get shy to come out and ask for medical help.
The deputy president said it while praising the Free State’s successful fight against the SARS-COV2 disease, where over 61% of its population got screened and almost 100% of the contacts from its Covid-19 cases isolated.
Mabuza said where there is stigma there is discrimination and such “undermined our efforts of defeating this pandemic.”
“We all have a responsibility to take charge,” he said while speaking in the Free State the past weekend.
He said what South Africa did when it fought HIV/AIDS and TB should occur now in defeating the Covid-19 global outbreak.
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“People have lost their loved ones. Some did not get even an opportunity to bid their loved ones farewell. Unfortunately, this was necessitated by conditions of history,” said Mzansi’s second-in-charge.
“As people return to their workplaces, as students return to school, and as travel restrictions are relaxed, we must maintain our discipline so that new infections are averted,” he said.
(edited by MLM)
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