Coronavirus in Rwanda: wearing a mandatory mask

Text by: RFI Follow

From now on, wearing a mask is compulsory in Rwanda. The Ministry of Health announced this weekend that wearing a mask is now compulsory in public places as well as in homes where several families live together. The country, in total containment since March 22, has to date 147 cases of Covid-19, including 76 recovered, and has recorded no deaths. This weekend, the Ministry of Health announced that Rwandans must now protect their faces in public places and even in homes sheltering several families.

Publicity

With our correspondent in Kigali, Laure Broulard

This Monday, April 20, the measure was variously followed in Kigali.

Dressed in the yellow jacket of telephone credit sellers, Marie-Ange readjusted a mask blackened by dust. "  I think it's a good measure,  " she said, "  because if everyone has a mask, it will stop the spread of the virus  ." However, she is worried. Among her clients for the day, some wore a mask, but others did not, and she feared for her health.

On this downtown street, three-quarters of passers-by covered their noses and mouths. Some discuss the price of cotton masks with other sellers of telephone credit, already converted into the sale of protective equipment against covid-19.

Olivier Ntirenganya, he wears a plastic mask which cost him half his daily salary. "  Right now, I earn about a euro a day,  " he says, "  and this mask cost me 50 cents ," an expense well worth it, because otherwise it could contract the virus ... "  The most important that's life,  "he says,"  50 cents to protect yourself, and the rest to eat  . "

The local pharmacy offers masks from China but at 1,000 Rwandan francs per unit (around one euro), the stock is difficult to sell.

"  People know they have to wear them, but the problem is that they are too expensive,  " says the pharmacist. However, Rwanda will soon make masks at 500 Rwandan francs which will be accessible to all, he said.

The authorities have indeed published the list of around twenty local companies authorized to manufacture what they call "  barrier masks  " at reduced prices. Production started on Monday.

► Read also : Coronavirus: how Rwanda copes with the pandemic

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• Rwanda
• Coronavirus