COVID-19: 600 Die Drinking Alcohol

By  Gideon Njoku

The deadly Coronavirus has started killing people by proxy.

In a desperate move to stop themselves from contracting it, a number of people, not only in Nigeria, but world over, are embarking on desperate actions.

Here in Nigeria, while some people believe there is nothing like such a Virus, a few people  overdosed themselves on Chloroquine, the once banned malaria tablet, as soon as they heard it could be “a weapon against the Virus.”

They landed in hospital.

Some have also gone as far as drinking hand sanitizers, many of them fake, and using detergents to take their bath. The effect on them was almost suicidal. Running stomach and bodies covered with ugly rashes.

Now, in Iran, an Islamic country, no fewer than 600 people have died after they drank a large dose of  highly- concentrated alcohol in a bid to protect themselves  from coronavirus.

The news of this  tragedy was broken by Iran’s semi-official News Agency, Tasnim, which quoted  a spokesperson for the Iranian Judiciary, Ghulam Hussein Ismaili.

According to Ismaili, the number of people who have died from drinking raw alcohol has escalated to a disturbing figure.

“More than 3,000 people have been poisoned after drinking toxic beverages in an effort to treat the disease”, he lamented.

Many of the alcoholic drinks, he said, were not only produced illegally, they lack the required standards. A number of people have been arrested as a result of the deadly business, but it has not stopped it from booming.

Iran is one of the countries where Coronavirus is thriving with morbid consequences.

As at Tuesday afternoon, as many as 3,872 have died of the Virus. The number of the  infected stood at 63,589 – and counting.