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This COVID-19 surge is a good reflection on human behaviour at Christmas time. It transmitted freely among a matrix of communities, which it had not done since the start of the pandemic, though the level of socialising was intense and consolidated in a bracket of four weeks.
Christmas time is a period of reunion, socialising with many people you may not always have had close contact with. Whether it is with old friends, loved ones from afar, or those at work, the matrix starts here: close contact with people from different areas/settings.
Unfortunately, when we get COVID-19 from a social setting, we wrap it up in a doggy bag and bring it home and wherever we go, exposing it to others whether at home or work or elsewhere, and they might then socialise with a wider network of people before the Christmas break.
These behaviours would have likely been repeated a number of times by many people over a sustained period of time, allowing the virus to circulate freely in the community, and having a plethora of hop-off and hop-on points. And while we rested at Christmas, COVID-19 wasn’t.
Most people returned to their homes at Christmas, many crossing the county and international border, where they would reunite with a large number of family members, a unique intergenerational social setting that COVID-19 did not previously enjoy in such high numbers.
Each week leading up to this household social setting was layered with a vast assortment of socialising. And the data from NPHET suggests that. November 30, there were 306 cases per day and average 2.5 close contacts. December 31, 1,620 cases and 6.3 close contacts.
What’s important is that we understand that if we drop the guard or allow ourselves to be exposed, COVID-19 and infectious diseases will spread in the community, and may end up infecting a vulnerable loved one. Let’s protect them. We can do that by simply protecting ourselves.
