African Entrepreneurship Record

Chapter 1422: Chapter 10: Medical Industry

Currently, the situation is most severe in the three cities of Cabinda, Luanda, and Benguela, so the related measures and procedures are also the strictest.

There’s no doubt that this has had a certain impact on the industries of these three cities, but more has affected the service sector and commercial activities, while the impact on industry and agriculture is minimal.

In fact, apart from requiring businesses and consumer venues to increase necessary epidemic prevention measures, the East African Government has not imposed a mandatory requirement for them to close down and cease business activities. However, due to media reports and cumbersome inspections by the industry and commerce department, some businessmen have voluntarily closed their businesses.

This is quite normal. Although the East African Government has not forced them to shut down, it has imposed restrictions on the flow of customers to prevent gatherings from exceeding the alert threshold.

With fewer customers, expenses such as rent, utilities, etc., have not decreased, and the additional costs due to increased epidemic prevention measures might lead to reduced profits or even losses for these business operators, making it better to temporarily cease operations voluntarily.

In other words, while the East African Government hasn’t completely shut down the doors, some business entities still cannot withstand the impact of the epidemic. This is what East Africa refers to as balancing epidemic prevention with the economy.

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Contrary to the relatively relaxed epidemic prevention policy of East Africa, the various European and American countries can be said to be doing everything they can to prevent the spread of the plague.

London.

As February approaches, the London Government has forcibly closed schools, cinemas, theaters, churches, and all public gathering places.

The entire streets of London have suddenly fallen into a great depression, even quieter than during wartime, mainly because World War I did not affect the UK’s mainland, while the epidemic is raging in places like London.

The hospitals in London are filled with patients on their beds, but the beds are still in short supply, or rather, can’t meet the demand at all — hospitals and crematoriums have long queues.

”Currently, the number of registered deaths due to influenza in London has exceeded 100,000 cases. Nationally, it’s about 200,000-plus in total, and the situation is extremely urgent.”

”And this has happened in less than half a month. The exact figures might be even worse than we imagined, because many people are simply unaccounted for.”

The reason why the death toll in London is so notable is closely related to the high urbanization of London. The population of the entire London accounts for over ten percent of the UK mainland, and such a densely populated area increases the transmission risk.

Prime Minister David, with a grim expression, listened to his subordinate’s report and asked, ”How’s the situation abroad?”

The UK Minister of Health said, ”In Europe, the situation in France and Germany is not much better than ours. Although France was prepared earlier, France is, after all, the origin of this influenza, so their situation may not be significantly better than ours.”

”Besides Germany and France, other European countries are also affected, and currently, the epidemic has covered all of Europe, even the easternmost Russia is affected.”

”Outside of Europe, the worst hit is North America, because, after the armistice, US and Canadian soldiers returned home, which led to a large number of influenza patients entering the US and Canada.”

Prime Minister David asked, ”What about East Africa?”

The Minister of Foreign Affairs said, ”According to feedback from our diplomatic departments stationed in East Africa, they have currently managed to keep the epidemic limited to coastal areas, and their capital, Rhein City, has not yet been affected.”

”However, according to information from our consulate in Cabinda, even in Cabinda, one of the hardest-hit areas in East Africa, there are actually only a few thousand patients.”

”Due to East Africa’s timely detection of influenza, they have largely kept this flu out, but with time, it should spread inland...”

Prime Minister David couldn’t listen anymore; he was not concerned about how this plague might develop in East Africa in the future. The current reality is that East Africa’s situation is better than UK’s, even better than most countries.

However, this is also a normal phenomenon because East Africa is far from Europe, so once the influenza was discovered, good customs controls could keep most sources of infection out of the country.

In fact, in the UK itself, there’s one region that hasn’t been hit too hard by the plague, which is Australia. After the outbreak, Australia enacted related policies and initiated proactive isolation.

And with Australia being in a very remote place itself, along with its sparse population, naturally, its impact from the epidemic has been minimal.

Prime Minister David said helplessly, ”Now there is no other option. Until we confirm the mortality rate of this plague decreases, we must continue to maintain strict policies and rigorously guard against the French flu.”

The UK, as France’s old rival, never gives France any face. What East Africa defines as the European Great Pandemic, the UK doesn’t quite accept, instead calling this outbreak the French flu.

Although the UK government doesn’t say so in official situations, privately, it’s commonly referred to this way. After all, this plague most likely started in France.

Today, the British public deeply despises the ”French flu”. The figures mentioned earlier are only the government’s registered death toll, while the number of infected people is evidently much higher.

Now in all of London, those who are uninfected are indeed rare. However, most people can endure it, while those who can’t, end up as cold numbers on the UK’s government statistics.