The Covid-19 pandemic was a wake-up call for us all. As the disease swept the world, we braced ourselves for it to hit home. While most South Africans locked down, medical services scurried to get everything in place to deal with the expected tsunami of cases.

As cardiologists, we were dismayed by the reports from China, Europe and the US that patients with underlying cardiac disease, especially those with associated diabetes and hypertension, had a much higher mortality when they contracted the coronavirus infection. ..