The announcement was made in the evening of yesterday, Wednesday March 18, 2020, through an address to the Nation broadcasted on the National Channel (RTNC). Felix Tshisekedi, the eyes turned on a teleprompter, took a series of drastic measures to fight against Covid-19 which already contaminated 14 Congolese of which case of local contacts at last 18 March. These measures, 13 on the total, relate to all the democratic Republic of Congo, even if the virus is only still circumscribed in Kinshasa.
Here are 13 measures:
1. Suspension, for 4 weeks as of this Friday March 20, 2020, of all the flights coming from the high-risk countries and of the countries of transit. Only the planes and the ships cargo liners and other means of transport freight will be authorized to reach the national territory and to their personnel subjected to controls;
2. Postponement of travel for all the travellers bound for the democratic Republic of Congo of all the passengers residing in the countries at the high risk until new order;
3. Obligation to all the passengers, their arrival at the national borders, to fill out an information sheet and to subject themselves, without exception, to the obligation of washing the hands and swab the temperature;
4. A quarantine of 14 maximum days to any person suspected during the test of temperature, for a thorough examination and with the need to intern, in the hospitals chosen for this purpose, the people who will be tested positive;
5. Equipments at the stations of entry maritime, river, lake and terrestrial of national territory of the same device of monitoring to reinforce the control of the passengers coming from the foreigner;
6. Systematical obligationobligation of the people in departure of Kinshasa towards the various Provinces of our country to the control measures with an aim of avoiding the propagation of this pandemia on the remainder of our country.
About the gatherings of the people, it was decided:
7. the banning of all gatherings, meetings, celebrations, of more than 20 people on the public spot apart from the family residence;
8. The closing of the schools, the universities, the higher official and private institutes on the whole of the national territory from this Thursday March 19, 2020 for 4 weeks duration;
9. The suspension of all the worships for 4 weeks period as from this Thursday March 19, 2020;
10. The suspension of all the sports activities in the stadiums and other places of sporting until new order;
11. Banning, until new order, of the opening of the discotheques, bars, coffees, terraces and restaurants;
12. The prohibition and the organization of mournings in the rooms and the residences. The mortal remains will be directly led from mortuary until the place of burial with a few numbers of the family;
13.The care by the Government of all the cases tested positive on the whole of the territory.
These measures enter in force from this Thursday March 19, 2020, or Friday March 20. In Kinshasa, the provincial government meets in the extraordinary Council of Ministers, this morning, to apply the measures taken by the president of the Republic together with the central government.
Corneille Kinsala N’soki
(CKS/Yes)