By Mumtaz Moosa Saley

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that has hit almost every country in the world, as the number of infections go up daily worldwide so does the stigma and discrimination that follows.

No one chooses to be sick; this is something that each of us need to remember. We have seen an alarming number of reports coming out of South Africa, this makes testing and getting people to be tested increasingly difficult.

In Khayelitsha a young mother and her family had become victim when they had notified people they may have come into contact with that they have been tested for COVID-19, forced out of the area, while many went as far as flooding social media with personal information and hate speech.

In a time of fear and panic we need to understand that the stigma attached hurts everyone by creating fear or anger towards other people the damage done is not only psychological but, in some cases, reported has also been physical.

It is a critical time whereby we need to stand for each other and be there, it is not a time to be divided, the more stigma that surrounds testing will result in many people not wanting to go for the test when they need to.

We are trying to flatten the curve and in order to do, so we all need play our part in staying home to stop the spread and encouraging those in our family who displays symptoms to go for testing.