African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1417: Chapter 8: Balancing Epidemic Prevention and Economic Development

Rhein City.

In response to the epidemic’s impact, the East African Government swiftly initiated relevant actions. Starting in January, East Africa began rigorous inspections of European and American ships, which expanded in February to include all countries worldwide.

Currently, even the East African Government is unclear which countries have not been affected by the epidemic.

”The number of reported patients nationwide is 1,372, of which over sixty percent are from several western port cities, and the east has also seen a large number of suspected cases.”

”European countries are issuing urgent warnings, and North American countries, due to frequent trade and exchanges with Europe, have become the world’s second-largest epidemic area. The epidemic is spreading worldwide through sea routes.”

The data provided by the East African Ministry of Health is shocking. Under East Africa’s strict prevention and control, the number of infected people has exceeded a thousand, and in countries less prepared, the numbers are at least ten times higher. There’s no need to mention Europe and North America, as it’s estimated that their governments can’t even keep track.

And this is just the data currently available to the East African Ministry of Health. Who knows how many are truly infected in East Africa, especially since the European influenza can easily be confused with other influenzas, not to mention underreported figures. The situation is clearly not optimistic.

Ernst said, ”Regarding the epidemic, we obviously cannot afford to relax. We must at least be prepared to endure the hardest year.”

Most pandemics display great power in their initial outbreak or middle stages. Ernst predicts this epidemic might last two to three years, and as time goes on, it should naturally subside.

The Spanish flu in the previous life was such. The only thing the East African Government can do is to endure through the most severe stage, minimizing losses; there’s no other way.

After all, even with the advanced technology of the previous era, there wasn’t a good method to deal with the pandemic, and Ernst largely does not believe that the current technological and medical level of East Africa can tame the European influenza.

Ernst continued, ”From today, impose martial law on the capital, strictly monitor personnel entering Rhein City, and scrutinize those entering the city. It’s best not to go to Rhein City unless necessary.”

No matter what, Ernst must first consider his own safety. For now, Rhein City remains safe, with no related cases.

After all, Rhein City is inland, and the outbreak originates mainly from coastal regions, even if it spreads to Rhein City, it will take time.

The Minister of Civil Affairs, Wolnitz, asked, ”Your Majesty, should we directly cut off Rhein City from external contact?”

Ernst responded, ”Cut off? Don’t daydream. As the capital, it’s absolutely impossible for Rhein City to sever ties with the outside world. Just the matter of food, drink, and basic needs for hundreds of thousands of people requires manpower, doesn’t it?”

”Moreover, local officials coming to Rhein City to report their duties and work can’t be stopped.”

”So, it’s impossible to forcibly implement this through an administrative order. Instead, ’advocate’ the concept of this, while enhancing sanitation and inspection work.”

If this were ten years ago, the East African Government doing so might not pose too much of a problem, as back then East Africa was a typical administrative command state with high public acceptance.

Now, East Africa has embraced a free market, so expecting the public to obediently follow government orders is clearly not easy to achieve.

Of course, if pushed forcefully, it could be done, but Ernst doesn’t want to stir public anger.

Ernst said, ”The era has changed, and so has the national economic system, so we can’t use past methods to combat this epidemic.”

”At the present stage, East Africa’s approach to fighting the epidemic should be to promote relevant epidemic prevention policies to the greatest extent possible while trying to maintain normal social production operations.”

However, this approach will obviously greatly reduce the effectiveness of epidemic prevention in East Africa. Nonetheless, Ernst understands that even if East Africa truly implemented comprehensive epidemic control with national safety as the first priority, it would be a thankless endeavor.

The East African populace will not be grateful to the government for ensuring most people’s safety and instead will feel dissatisfaction due to the government’s restrictive policies.

Even if East Africa truly imposed nationwide martial law, it would not keep the epidemic completely at bay, so Ernst advocates balancing citizens’ safety and the economy.

Ernst said, ”We need to ensure the government does everything within its power, at least to let the people believe we have made the greatest effort, after all, if they are truly locked inside, they would be unwilling.”

As an autocratic monarch, Ernst has no moral baseline, otherwise the nation of East Africa wouldn’t exist.

”During this period, we also have the opportunity to advance economic policies, promoting domestic economic transformation. On one hand, stimulating and driving enterprise upgrading and transformation, on the other hand, improving service quality and perfecting the domestic economic circulation system.”

With the end of the First World War, the East African economy has already faced significant challenges. At this time, leveraging the European flu is perfect to push forward economic transformation efforts.

The current problems facing the East African economy mainly lie in two aspects. Firstly, the economic quality is relatively poor. Although East Africa is the world’s largest industrial country, compared to European and American countries, East Africa’s industries still focus on middle and low-end sectors.

Secondly, after the end of the world war, European orders have significantly decreased, creating a substantial impact on East Africa’s current industrial structure.