SowetanLive reported on how Covid-19 stigma led a school teacher to set herself on fire.
HR leaders’ concerns about the stigma surrounding Covid-19 are bound to be reinforced by an artice recently published on SowetanLive about a school principal whose wife attempted to commit suicide because of Covid-19 depression.
On the condition of anonymity, the 51-year-old spoke to the publication saying his wife attempted to set herself on fire while in the isolation room at their house in Benoni. The principal said his wife had tested positive for the virus two weeks prior after coming back from a meeting at a school where she is a teacher.
Although she did not display any further symptoms of the virus while in isolation, the article states she often complained about being sent messages that made her feel like she was dying, and felt victimised as a subject of gossip among colleagues and friends.
Now that his wife has tested negative and is recovering from her burn wounds, the school principal plans to embark on community education campaigns aimed at de-stigmatising people infected by the virus.
