Faizel Patel – 17/06/2020
Well known journalist and former editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian Khadija Patel has told Radio Islam, COVID-19 is a reality and shares how she and family grappled with the harsh realities of the global pandemic.
Patel tweeted last week that she had contracted the Coronavirus and details how she overcame the pandemic.
She says more than ten people in her family had contracted COVID-19 which has so for infected 76,334 people in South Africa while 1,625 people have succumbed to the virus.
Patel says she decided go public about contracting COVID-19 because she believes there is a great need for communities to understand the realities of the pandemic and how harshly it affects people.
“There’s a lot of information out there about what to avoid contracting COVID-19, there isn’t a lot of information available about what to do when you actually do contract the disease. Considering that Alhamdulillah I had recovered I thought that there was an opportunity for me to share my experience with others.”
She says that while everybody experiences COVID-19 differently, it is the loneliness during self-isolation that takes a toll.
An emotional Patel says she gets angry when some people continue to think of Covid-19 as ‘overhyped’ or ‘a media myth’
“It actually makes me angry to be honest. When you have to watch your mother who is otherwise healthy and indeed fitter than me… When you have to watch her struggling to breath, you can only understand it’s reality in that moment.”
Patel says that among the things that helps in overcoming the virus is having the love, support and kindness of family and friends, supplication to the Almighty and the thought that you are not alone in the battle against the pandemic.
Listen to the interview with Khadija Patel
0 Comments