26th March 2020
My landlady tells me that the recent incidences in Kigali of a man being killed by a crocodile crossing a river, two men being shot by a policeman for breaking lockdown rules and then resisting arrest were in fact people that are desperate, crossing districts and rivers in order seek food or return home to their villages.
People who live out in the villages as subsistence farmers and barely touch money are not so affected. It is the people in the districts in and around Kigali that are going to be the most heavily impacted, those who had been earning on a daily basis with no guaranteed income and who can now no longer work. There are rumours that some people have said they would rather die of C-19 than die of hunger. My landlady tells me of Rwanda’s practice of the more wealthy giving money to the poor on a local level. This is being stepped up, but because the people in some local areas have no money to give, they are expanding it to local cells which cover a larger area. I feel guilty but grateful for my privileged life. I donate some money that somehow can't ever feel enough, and my landlady is overwhelmed that a westerner would join in.
The Biomedical Centre, which set up a test lab back in February specifically for C-19 have released a video telling people why they have been going to houses and picking people up in ambulances. Once a person is diagnosed, they trace everyone who may have had contact and put them into isolation. The Rwanda Broadcasting also inform us that the first patient with COVID-19 will likely be discharged next week.
Things are changing rapidly in the UK. People are now being called out for their bulk buying, as it becomes apparent that old people and NHS workers have suffered because of it. New initiatives are coming up to support old people, and over 405,000 people have volunteered in the past 24 hours to help the NHS.
In response to whether he regrets not acting sooner on C-19 measures, Boris Johnson says the UK will take ‘the right measures at the right time based on “the best scientific advice”’.
That evening, encouraged by the government, people go out to their front doors to clap in appreciation for the NHS. Ironically, it was only a few months ago that the same Tory government were clapping when it was voted that NHS nurses would not get a pay rise.
There are nine new cases in Rwanda bringing the number to 50.