Cape Town’s battle with COVID-19

The Covid-19 virus emerged in Wuhan, China late into 2019, and having since been declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation, there has been over 60 million confirmed cases and 1.8 million deaths.

A map showing the spread of Covid-19

Models of transmission for infectious diseases has historically argued that it is a combination of social mixing and poor sanitation that often spreads quickly through the developing world (Funk et al., 2010). The ongoing pandemic and emergence of new virus variants in densely populated areas of urban spaces is a desperate plea for us to begin to reconceptualise how we think about viruses, and the spread of them, in the city (Conolly et al., 2020). By exploring the situated Urban Political Ecology perspectives of city management, we shall address how the virus has spread through urban processes whilst also impacting the political and urban management of the city (Heynen et al., 2006).

Cape Town’s rising threat of Covid-19

After the false hope that a decline in cases over the summer presented Cape Town, South Africa is now experiencing a strong second wave and volatile spread of a far more communicable spread of a new virus strain. But with over a million cases, we would expect the city to be struggling significantly with death, however, reported deaths per capita do appear to be lower than other parts of the world. This could be for several reasons, including the relatively young population, suggesting that the city’s population is not as vulnerable to complications (Oldekop et al., 2020). However, the most prominent issue that has arisen through the spread of Covid-19 in Cape Town is the geographical unevenness of cases within less privileged urban spaces. Informal settlements, such as Masiphumele and Klipfontein Glebe (Gibson and Rush, 2020), are evidence of clusters of urban dwellings that are unable to effectively social distance, and as a result, the densely populated, and largely Black African areas have higher rates of Covid-19 infections (Corburn et al., 2020). These hotspots of cases are concentrated in poorer neighbourhoods, highlighting how a mixture of poor urban planning and ineffective sanitation have largely contributed to the rise in infections within these more disadvantaged areas (ibid). 

An exploration of Cape Town’s Covid-19 hotspots

The economic and cultural consequences

Rising cases are not the city’s only concern. The virus’s attack on global health has resulted in disastrous impacts on the urban and economic landscape (Pierantoni et al., 2020).  According to the UNDP, Cape Town’s economy is likely to take over 5 years to recover, with black and ethnic minority communities bearing the brunt of the ongoing economic fallout, with 54% of households being pushed out of permanent jobs. The idyllic aspect of Cape Town’s peri-urban nature has attracted tourists for decades, but as Covid-19 has all but halted tourism, game reserves that cater to the enjoyment of Cape Town’s serene nature, have resorted to culling significant numbers of animals, whilst also cutting jobs that employ 1 in 20 people in the rural spaces. The reserves are often community-owned, and with the ongoing health crisis inhibiting tourism and financial aid, they are likely to suffer long into the future from economic strife and lack of support. The socio-economic consequences have no doubt called into question the failures of the ANC run government in facilitating financial aid in a nation still riddled with the legacies of a racist Apartheid system. 

Cape Town’s tourist based nature reserves

A situated understanding of Covid-19

By understanding and approaching the political ecologies or Covis-19 in a dynamic and uneven city, like Cape Town, we can understand the metabolic flows that enable the spread of Covid-19 through both a spatial and economic split (Sharifi, 2020). Cape Town’s future management of Covid-19, viruses to come, is at a crossroads as to how the city will minimise the new virulent strain, whilst also address how vaccines, that require refrigeration of up to -70 degrees Celsius, and access to them will be distributed without mirroring the system of urban inequalities that are yet to be dismantled and reimagined in the city.

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References:

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Heynen, N., Perkins, H. and Roy, P., 2006. The Political Ecology of Uneven Urban Green Space. Urban Affairs Review, 42(1), pp.3-25.

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Sharifi, A. and Khavarian-Garmsir, A.R., 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic: Impacts on cities and major lessons for urban planning, design, and management. Science of The Total Environment, p.142391.