MUSICIAN Daniel Siulapwa, alias Danny Kaya, says Covid-19 worsened his eyesight, but that after getting vaccinated, he did not suffer any symptoms.

And Danny says celebrities must get vaccinated in order to inspire other citizens to protect themselves from the pandemic.

Meanwhile, the Yakumbuyo singer says musicians had to rely on social media to entertain their fans when the Covid-19 pandemic began, noting that they were able to reach larger audiences than when they hold physical shows.

In an interview, Danny recalled that he was among the first people to get Covid-19.

“Yes, from the first wave, I did test positive, actually my whole house did test positive, it was a very scary moment because no one knew what to do yet. By that time, people were still learning how to handle the disease. And of course I thank the Ministry of Health, they really came out to support us, they would call everyday and check up on everyone and make everyone comfortable to keep us going. Covid-19 really drains mentally. When you are told that your Covid results have come out positive, it brings mental stress on you because you start thinking what if? So it’s something that we endured, I really followed it up online, watching news, knowing what’s happening around the country and globally, what people are doing to fight Covid-19. And after that, I thank God my whole family was out of it,” Danny said.

“From there, I became a family consultant. Whoever got Covid, they would call me as one who probably got it first and I would encourage them as well and that’s how we managed to live with it. I am fully vaccinated now and I can encourage other celebrities to get vaccinated. I think that will help to encourage more people to get the vaccine. My experience is that after I got vaccinated, I think there was a time when I got the virus, but I did not experience the symptoms like it was the first time.”

He narrated how his eye sight became worse after recovering from Covid-19.

“Personally I had an effect. What I noticed about Covid is that when it gets into your body or system, it looks for something that has been hidden and brings it out. As for me, I have had eyesight problems even before Covid but it was not as bad as before I got Covid-19. After healing, my eye got bad such that I was told by the doctor to start wearing spectacles. Yes, I had an eye problem but it was a small issue, but after Covid, I went to the optician and I was told that my eye has worsened and that I needed to start wearing spectacles. The mental stress is what is more of a problem than the actual disease, you worry more than before you got Covid-19, as for me, my symptoms where mild, I only had a headache that’s all, but the mind becomes busy thinking that your body will change and that people are dying on TV so the battle of Covid is more in the mind,” he said.

And Danny said the entertainment industry had been negatively affected, but that this brought about innovation.

“Of course Covid-19 has affected every industry and the music industry wasn’t spared at all, especially in the first wave in (2019-2020), it was very difficult to deal with it, because we didn’t know what to do, as musicians we make gigs, concerts and conferences, as a way of getting income and interacting with your fans. But due to Covid-19, there was a lockdown and no socialisation. Everything was put to hold, to stand still and on pause, that was really a challenge, to the whole industry. However, it created a positive outcome, it made us become more innovative and started finding means and ways of doing events via Facebook you know, and online concerts. I came up with the Danny Kaya quarantine music on Facebook three months later, and a few cooperative companies came to sponsor it. Covid-19 made us understand that this is probably the new normal and we have to do this longer than you think and still reach out to your fans online,” Danny said.

He observed that online content reached more people than physical performances.

“It’s an interesting thing, when you are online, the turnout is even more because it is as good as people are watching for free, you will find that by the end of the day, you have over 50 thousands views, meaning if it was physical, you will have 50 thousand people which we’ve never had. So more people get to watch but it’s different when it’s physical because people get to pay by the gate, which the numbers go down a bit but online, you get to reach out to people across the whole country, global and all that. So it is a bit more strange but probably it’s something that we didn’t explore because we didn’t know how the future is gonna be like,” said Danny.