Rwanda has joined international trends of escalating controls within its own borders. One more time, it become the first African country to grind economic activities for non-essential services to a near halt.

Dr. Édouard Ngirente, the Prime Minister of Rwanda, referred to these stepped-up efforts on the issued national statement “Enhanced Covid-19 Prevention Measures” yesterday.

The Eastern African state introduced a 14-day lockdown which begun Saturday Mar. 21, 2020 at 23:59. The “initial period of two (2) weeks” is indicative of accelaration ahead.

International travel is banned. However, only returning citizens from other countries will be allowed back home subject to the mandatory 2-week quarantine.

Home to a population of 12, 627 million according to the United Nations 2019 report, Rwanda confirmed 17 coronavirus cases to this end.

Initially, Rwanda beat the 54-country continent to the draw by shutting down schools, religious, sports and other forms of gatherings. The latest announcement has added another vital layer of controls to contain the fatal epidemic.

Flattening the curve

Evidently, the main thrust around the globe is all about saving as many lives as possible. The economics rule-book of fiscal discipline, saving jobs, economic growth and weighted risks has been tossed to the burning coals.

China, South Korea and Singapore are singled-out as current models where lockdowns worked. They managed to conduct more tests, quarantined and eased the pace of the spread. In the same breath, they disinfected empty city spaces and buildings while people stayed indoors.

Giving credence to restraining the mobility of people and encouraging social or physical distancing among other techniques actually loosens the stranglehold of Covid-19, especially on vulnerable groups – the senior citizens and those with underlying illnesses.

They dramatically slowed-down infections which were spiraling out of control and flattened the upward trajectories of the curves. That also enabled them to create more capacity and allowed their health systems to function efficiently.

Perilous ignorance

In the United Kingdom, the current mayor Sadiq Khan told the BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) on Sunday that if people do not stop going out and using public transport, many will die.

More and more cases being reported in Europe and United States of America are overwhelming hospitals and drain-out medical supplies. That leaves many people left to fight the disease on their own because hospitals alone can not cope up with pressure.

There is no single country with sufficient hospitals to handle the number of sickly people. Those who are ignoring public warnings are putting their lives and many others in peril.

For lack of a direct cure, self-isolation can make a huge difference in the invisible battle. For that reason and many others, plenty of deaths could be averted.

China back to business

Its [China’s] 4% death rate suffocates under Italy’s 9% currently. The world is racing against time to wrestle down this outrageous virus.

At the moment, China is rebooting its engines of mass-production factories that supply the entire world. Business activities and normal life is being restored albeit piecemeal. It could have been worse. It main worry are imported cases which are igniting a second low-beat throttle.

Lack of vaccine, though, adds to the morbidity of it all. World Health Organization (WHO) says it will take “at least a year” to have one.

Global Covid-19 epicenter

The death toll has reached 13, 642 worldwide. Italy leads the pack with 4, 825 while China [3,261] continues to record remarkable declines of people dying from the onslaught of coronavirus.

Medical professionals and experts are relentlessly urging governments the world over to speed up medical supplies and avail facilities to ease off the rate of inflictions.

Here are overworked medics labouring under threatening conditions with limited equipment and other supplies. In Europe and America, particularly in Italy, Spain and United States (US), have become the main focus of the Covid-19 pandemic in those regions.

As the terrifying storm twists its way violently around the world regardless, it is infiltrating the Sub-Saharan region. African states, too, are scaling up strict interventions to curb the unabated novel coronavirus contagion.

A rundown of the latest advanced Covid-19 containment strides by the Rwandan government is displayed below.