Laying the bricks of recovery

Jo-Maré Duddy – Great reluctance against vaccination amongst workers in the construction sector has urged industry leaders to call for a more aggressive campaign from government and for bigger involvement from the private sector.

“If the pandemic cannot be brought under control it could lead to government imposing lockdowns again, which would be disastrous for Namibia’s economy,” says the general manager of the Construction Industries Federation of Namibia (CIF), Bärbel Kirchner.

“It could be the final straw for numerous more businesses,” Kirchner told Market Watch, adding: “It would then be even more difficult for the economy to recover. It will lead to huge personal and national losses.”

Namibia’s gross domestic product (GDP) in real terms has grown by -1.7% on average since 2016, registering a record contraction of 8% last year as the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns shattered the economy.

The construction sector has been in recession the past five years, recording annual growth of -41.1% in 2016 when the government embarked on its fiscal consolidation policy. Its annual contraction in real terms has slowed since, with growth of -11.8% recorded in 2020.

‘ESSENTIAL’

Asked about the importance of mass vaccination to the construction sector and the economy as a whole, the CIF gauged 12 large Namibian contractors.

Feedback indicated that around 5% to 10% of employees in the industry received at least their first shot of Sinopharm or Astra Zeneca. In rare cases, the vaccination rate was 20%, Kirchner said.

“Many of the CIF contractors encourage their employees to get vaccinated. This is supported through creating awareness and allowing time off and providing transport where possible,” she said.

Kirchner pointed out that the general opinion of contractors surveyed was “that there is a great reluctance amongst employees to get vaccinated and that forcing employees is not an option”.

According to Kirchner, all the large contractors who responded considered vaccination as “extremely important”. “It is critical that about 70% of the population is vaccinated – not only to stop the pandemic, but also for the recovery of health and the economy,” she said.

“The vaccine is essential, but unfortunately not the only remedy required, to restore the economy to sustainable health. There are second-tier effects, such as long-term unemployment and mortgage foreclosures, that will continue to depress growth after the country reaches herd immunity,” one of the respondents said.

NOT FAST ENOUGH

The general view of the CIF respondents was that rate of vaccinating is not fast enough.

Namibia started vaccinating on 19 March, but not on a 24/7 basis. By Sunday, a total of 19 930 people in Namibia received both doses of Sinopharm or Astra Zeneca and were therefore fully vaccinated.

Government’s target is to have 1 501 042 Namibians fully vaccinated by January 2022. Assuming government’s target date is 1 January 2022, that leaves 194 days to achieve the goal. This means an average of 5 315 people will have to be fully vaccinated per day, Saturdays and Sundays included, according to Market Watch’s calculations based on official data.

Respondents in the CIF’s poll agreed that government’s vaccination campaign was “not aggressive enough”. “They felt a lot more needed to be done to overcome negative misinformation being spread through positive factual information,” Kirchner says.

She added: “The private sector has realised the need and is feeling the pain of the current situation and thus is already going out of its way to accommodate employees to do more vaccinations.

“The private sector should put more pressure on the government to speed up the vaccination process and should request the government to allow the private medical practitioners to assist in the vaccination process.”

VARIETY

Industry leaders differ on whether Namibia’s health system is geared for mass vaccination.

“Although some said that they did not think that it was sufficiently geared to meet the demand, others felt that there was room for improvement and others felt that indeed it was sufficiently resourced, yet that the people were not making use of it,” Kirchner said.

“Respondents commented that the choice was limited as only two types of vaccines were available, whereas other countries had ordered earlier from different suppliers. It was felt that government ordered the vaccines too late,” she added.

The sector also expressed concern that the waiting time for the second Astra Seneca vaccination was 12 weeks and whether there will be enough vaccine for the second vaccination. It can be anticipated that more people will want to get vaccinated due the current increasing rate of infections and Covid-19 deaths, Kirchner pointed out.

Some construction leaders were also worried that government’s dire financial situation might prevent it from buying sufficient vaccines.

WORK TOGETHER

It was also suggested that the ministry of health and social services should work together with employer federations to spread the message and inform employees of the benefits of vaccination. Another recommendation was that vaccination points should be more widespread and easily accessible in terms of location and opening times and days, Kirchner said.

“It is of critical importance that during these difficult and uncertain times that government, medical professionals and the private sector work closely together to find the best solutions – also considering the situation in other countries – in order to minimise the risk of further increasing infections and Covid deaths,” she stressed.

“This is particularly important as the health infrastructure is currently not able to meet the demand to due lack of beds, equipment and supplies despite the tremendous and absolutely dedicated efforts of the medical professionals on the front line. Emergency interventions should be considered at this stage and lockdowns must be avoided,” Kirchner concluded.