YESTERDAY, President Emmerson Mnangagwa cut short his leave to bury two national heroes, Ellen Gwaradzimba and Morton Malianga, a veteran of the struggle, who both succumbed to COVID-19, at the national heroes’ acre. Mnangagwa also lost a minister, Sibusiso Moyo, his Foreign Affairs and International Trade frontman who also succumbed to COVID-19 and indications are that he will soon be back at the national shrine to lay him to rest. His ministers and other senior government officials, many of them we are told, are also down with the virus, or recovering. This is not a good sign. Death is knocking on the doors of the political elite and to them, reality is slowly creeping in that COVID-19 is not a joke anymore. Party chairperson Oppah Muchinguri, who boasted last year that COVID-19 had been sent by God to Western countries to punish them for imposing sanctions on Zimbabwe, could rue her words. As it turns out, it was an awful joke which has come back to haunt her. We wonder which God she meant. It is hitting all classes of society, the high and low, haves and have-nots all at a frightening pace. Indeed, to borrow the words of the late Lieutenant General (Rtd) SB, the situation has “reached another level”. In the midst of the ravaging pandemic, we can only hope that the leadership can abandon indifference and understand that foreign medical facilities will not save them when death takes advantage of their negligence which led to the collapse of local facilities. It should be a wake-up call that healthcare provision is a must and there is need for them to make available proper public health facilities in the country now. That has been the plea of a commoner in the country that hospitals be well equipped and medication availed to everyone, from the poorest to the richest. It has been a tough period for the country but the leadership adopted a lackadaisical approach, a dangerous one for that matter, and that kind of approach to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, bordered on recklessness. It has been over a year with COVID-19 among us but nothing concrete has been done to ensure we won’t perish in the manner we witness now. We are living in deadly times and now that COVID-19 is hitting closer to the citadel of power, it has to be a wake-up call that action needs to be taken. It cannot be business as usual and to those who often fly to other countries when medical disasters strike, every country is overwhelmed and there should be no place like home under the circumstances. Unfortunately, this home’s medical facilities have been destroyed and sadly, those in authority are always implicated in the plunder of resources meant for the good of the nation. This COVID-19 calamity should teach those looting public funds that it will come back to bite them at some point just like it is doing now. It should be a clear reminder that calling for a corruption free Zimbabwe means calling for a functioning country that is able to stand and fight together in times of crisis. If the virus is hitting closer to home, it naturally should be a tim