It will be a Christmas with a difference: celebrating the day with death lurking amid a spike in new cases of Covid-19 attributed to the Omicron variant.
The merry-making will be limited to close family members as the highly transmissible variant has meant that social gatherings won’t take place.
In addition, the developments that happened early this year when cases headed north after the December merry-making.
When the Covid-19 hit our shores last year, no one expected it to be dominant more than a year later. There are indications the virus will be with us for a long time.
In Europe, countries have imposed lockdowns to deal with the threat of a surge in new infections amid indications that new cases are doubling after every two days.
On the local scene, the devastating effects of Covid-19 are evident. Two hard lockdowns this year plus a reduction in the working hours have forced companies to right size—the favourite nomenclature by executives as they erase retrenchment from their vocabulary.
In the banking sector, thousands were retrenched as banks digitise which forced them to close a number of branches with services being accessed digitally.
There is no doubt that Covid-19 is the Grinch that stole Christmas.
We urge citizens not to throw away the reins this festive season as the threat remains in our midst. Adherence to WHO protocols should be key. We urge those that have not been vaccinated to do so.
The pandemic changed the landscape so fast that those that failed to adjust were swept away by the tide.
We pulled through in the year, thanks to the support we received from our partners.
With companies tightening the screws on finances in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic which disrupted operations, we are grateful to our advertisers for standing with us in this dark period.
We are humbled by such support and pledge to continue to give our partners value for money. Business Times will remain a marketplace of ideas. It is the pledge we made when we launched in 2018. It is our pledge today and will remain so in the future.
As Business Times we will strive to broaden our sections to cater for different segments of society.
The introduction of the Executive Profile, Mining, Community and Property sections this year is a step towards giving more diversity to our partners. Some of the additions stem from the feedback we got on our social media platforms.
We will introduce more sections in the new year in line with making Business Times the marketplace for ideas.
We are confident that the economy will turn the corner in the not too distant future as symbolised by our salmon colour.
Fiscal and monetary authorities say they have put the building blocks for a take-off.
We invite more corporates to walk with us in this journey to make Business Times the publication of choice in line with our motto, Redefining Business.
Merry Christmas and a Happy 2022.
