30th March 2020
The Rwandan newspaper The New Times releases an article on awareness of mental health during lockdown and identifies triggers such as isolation, rising numbers of death (although there have been none so far in Rwanda) and fear of infection. My landlady also speaks about mental health, and asks I will be alright being on my own away from my family. So far, I have not felt any anxiety. I’m constantly surprised at how calm I feel and I’m sleeping like a log at night.
Rwanda is continuing to take huge precautions. There are constant warnings of the need to maintain distance and isolate. Trucks still drive around with loudspeakers telling people to stay at home. There have been several arrests of people who have broken isolation for the wrong reasons, shops who have not been issued a licence and are selling non essentials and people crossing districts. Mostly people are following instructions and doing all they can to support the country with the virus.
So far the majority of cases have been imported, with a few cases being those who have had contact. Anyone coming into the country, because Rwanda is still allowing nationals to return, are put into quarantine for 14 days. The ones who have been traced as contacts are put into specially designated hotels and monitored for the same duration.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female president who led Liberia for twelve years including during the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak that killed nearly 5,000 in her country is asked for her reflections by the BBC. She makes a plea to fellow world citizens to slow down, break the chain of transmission and flatten the curve, that while African nations have so far been spared the worst, it is only a matter of time until it batters the continent which is the least prepared to fight it.
“There were lapses made in the initial response to the virus (Ebola), from Asia to Europe, to the Americas. Cues were missed. Time was wasted. Information was hidden, minimised and manipulated. Trust was broken. Fear drove people to run, to hide, to hoard to protect their own, when the only solution is and remains based in the community….an indispensable, albeit delayed reaction, that every person, in every nation, needs to do their part. I know this. I made all of those missteps in 2014, and so did the world’s responders. But we self-corrected and we did it together. In Liberia, we emerged resilient from the Ebola epidemic, and stronger as a society, with health protocols in place that are enabling us to manage the COVID-19”
Rwanda too, learnt from the Ebola outbreak. Although they did not have any cases, it was close by on the borders of DRC. Even now, there are warning posters of Ebola symptoms and Rwandans tell me that because of the Ebola scare, Rwanda are more prepared for viruses.
Meanwhile in the US, Trump says that keeping US Covid-19 deaths to 100,000 would be a very good job
“If we could hold that down to…between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths, we altogether have done a very job”
And yet on March 9th he had tweeted:
“…last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. It averages between 27,000 and 70,000 deaths per year. Nothing is shut down, life and the economy go on. At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of coronavirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!"
And with over 4,000 Americans dead and others are dying Trump tweets:
‘President Trump is a ratings hit. Since reviving the daily White House briefing Mr Trump and his coronovirus updates have attracted an average audience of 8.5 million on cable news, roughly the viewership of the season finale of ‘The Batchelor’. Numbers are continuing to rise…..’
He is also implying that hospital staff are stealing masks, when in fact these hospitals are war zones being staffed by heroes.
And it doesn't end there, the justice department has opened an investigation into potential insider trading by Senators who sold stocks after coronovirus briefings, and there are talks of Trump giving preferential treatment with regards to medical resources to states with a Republican governor.
But good news for Rwanda. No new C-19 cases and some of those undergoing treatment or in quarantine are going home
