By Zahid Jadwat
The lockdown strategy – aimed at combating the coronavirus spread – has generated more economic issues by itself, Professor Imraan Valodia, Dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Law, and Management at the University of Witwatersrand told Salaamedia.
Professor Valodia was speaking on The Special Focus on Thursday afternoon.
“We were in a poor economic position before the virus hit. The strategy we’ve used to manage the health crisis has generated a much more significant set of economic issues.”
Professor Valodia also said that the lockdown is unsustainable over the long-term, despite it being “the right thing” in terms of combating Covid-19. He said that a balanced approach needs to be taken between combating the virus and the challenges the disease poses to the economy.
“We need to manage these two crises at the same time. We need to develop protocols to manage the health side while we start to open up parts of the economy with low health risks.”
Professor Valodia believes that the government needs to “upscale the amount of testing and isolate people who are positive with the virus”, and develop a protocol that allows for the gradual opening of the economy.
”We can’t continue with the lockdown in its present form. We have to find another strategy that deals with the health crisis, but also opens the economy,” said Professor Valodia.
He added that the economic cost of the lockdown will increase unemployment and warned that the current problems challenging the economy will be amplified.
“If we continue with a full lockdown, the economic cost of that will continue to spiral and the unemployment rate will go up. Tax revenue will go down and the problems we have will just be amplified.”
Featured image via FreePik.
