It will go down in all our memories as a day we will never forget: Millions of South Africans sat glued to their TV screens, watching President Cyril Ramaphosa announce that we were all under house arrest.

Of course, it was for our own good. In the months and weeks leading to that moment, we had seen unnerving images of overcrowded hospitals in Italy. Could this be a warning, a premonition of sorts, of what awaited us when local community transmissions of Covid-19 started?..