A week after its announcement by President Ali Bongo Ondimba, the confinement of Grand Libreville will taken effect this Sunday, April 12 to limit the spread of the coronavirus. Confirmed Friday April 10 by the Prime Minister, the municipalities of Libreville, Akanda, Owendo, Ntoum and Pointe Denis will be cut off from the country for a period of 15 days renewable if necessary.
The measure followed a partial containment established on March 22 which has been rated “insufficient”. Despite the preventive measures decreed in recent weeks, the country has seen its covid-19 infection curve increase every day. Since Thursday, there have been 44 cases declared positive for the virus, including one death and a recovery.
Outside the capital Libreville, Bitam is the other locality in the country affected by the disease, with three positive cases to date. It is therefore to prevent the virus from spreading to other cities that the authorities have decided to cut the towns of Libreville, Akanda, Owendo, Ntoum and Pointe Denis from the country.
Taken within the framework of the proclamation of the state of health emergency, “this decision is essential by the current health challenge in order to avoid to our country an unpredictable and explosive trajectory of this pandemic”, the Prime Minister justified.
According to Lambert-Noël Matha, Minister of the Interior, it is not excluded that other localities in the country will also be quarantined in the hours or days to come, because of reports which are regularly transmitted to him.
Shops and commercial areas in the city were overwhelmed with people as they all struggled to stock their homes for the lockdown. But some people were too lucky to stock much.
“We took those few pounds of food. It really isn’t much, especially since the kids don’t go to school anymore. We only hope that the government will be able to support us when the time comes, otherwise we will run into chaos, ” Benjamin Etonga , a Libreville inhabitant told CEMAC ECO FINANCE on phone.
At the time of this report, authorities promised to roll out accompanying measures to support the population. F
