We began this week on a sour note; in just one day, the number of people infected by the Coronavirus had doubled. Now we have our 40th confirmed case.

In most cases , the pattern of infection is similar; most patients passed through Dubai so it safe to suspect that the epicenter of the infection in the vast Dubai Airport, one of the busiest in the world.

But with all the gloom comes some soul-raising news that the first patients – a Rwandan  couple – could be discharged from hospital anytime soon after displaying encouraging signs of recovery.

But despite the initial panic of rushing to stock on face masks and sanitisers, the public seem to have dropped their guard and is defying lockdown instructions.

The police have come out to sound a warning but they are in a fix; how do they tell if someone is lying by saying they are going to do some essential shopping? Many use that loophole to visit friends and thereby increasing chances of spreading the virus.

And even if the police was able to make good their threat of arresting those who defy the lockdown, incarcerating would beat the whole logic of social distancing. But something needs to be done to drive the message home; it is not a drill folks, the virus is truly here.

Italians learned about the COVID-19 the hard way; when they had only five patients, they boldly defied safety directives and were proud of it. One month later, 60,000 had been infected and 10 per cent of them dead.

Let repeat it, the virus is not a joke and the first line of defence is you.