COVID19 Fairness of distribution of food and basic supplies at times of emergency
COVID19 Fairness of distribution of food and basic supplies at times of emergency

Families, single parents especially those with young or sick children, and already vulnerable people who are self isolating or will be in lockdown, will soon not be able to have access to basic food and medicine supplies as online delivery services and supermarket supplies are already in shortage. Let’s imagine if the entire population will be locked down for months to come. The parliament should now legislate to lock down all stores and use the army for monthly distribution of food supplies such as canned food, long life milk and other lasting products and basic medicines such as paracetamol in a quantity sufficient to each household for thirty days at the time. This measure will allow better control over the spreading of the virus because people will not need to go out for shopping when online deliveries are not available for weeks. It will also ensure that everyone, equally, will have the right to eat whilst enduring the lockdown. Already the cash rich and able have had the possibility to stock up on basics leaving little for the less financially and physically able people. Parliament should legislate for each council to provide the mapping of their population to a specially created central committee which will be in charge of organising the content and quantity of packs of supplies based on number of family members per household. The army should have the responsibility to prepare the packs and delivering . All food items should be brought to central warehouses created in big cities/ shopping centres to serve also nearby villages. This is the only effective measure to facilitate isolation and stop the spreading of the virus.