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Djibouti, the country with the highest prevalence of coronavirus cases in East Africa, will begin lifting the blockade measures in a bid to ease pressure on its economy.
To date, the The small Horn of Africa nation that hosts major U.S. and French military bases has recorded 1,189 coronavirus infections and three related deaths.
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“By tomorrow, the process of gradually unlocking the country will begin in Djibouti“Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf wrote Sunday in a Twitter post.
“There is a lot at stake, but there is no other option: people need to earn a living and go to work,” he said.
Public transport will resume and the official reopening of places of worship will be allowed, although “very strict protection measures” must be followed, such as requiring masks and forcing physical separation, Youssouf added.
“The borders will remain closed except for humanitarian personnel who will follow an agreed prevention protocol to prevent the reintroduction of a new form of the virus,” he said, without elaborating.
Even with those measures, Youssouf acknowledged that “new epicenters of contamination could emerge in the capital city” and said that a national working group would continue to follow the spread of COVID-19, the highly infectious respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus.
The African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) He says Djibouti has the highest number of cases in Africa relative to its population of roughly one million people, although its tests have also surpassed many of its neighbors.
On March 23, the government announced a national shutdown, closing borders and places of worship, banning public transportation, and allowing only workers from essential industries to leave.
But the measures have been largely ignored, with large crowds still common in the city of Djibouti, the capital.
President Ismail Omar Guelleh, in power since 1999, warned last month of “even stricter measures” if the population did not respect the rules of confinement.
But the strict imposition of the blockade has drawn criticism from Guelleh, who could run for president again next year after the term limits were abolished in a constitutional change.
Meanwhile, the number of coronavirus cases in Africa has exceeded 60,000, according to an update from Africa CDC.
New figures on Sunday showed that some 2,114 people died from COVID-19, while 20,792 recovered.
