After DRC’s COVID-19 Restrictions are Eased, “continue with preventive measures”: Prelate

DRC, the second largest country in Africa, has recorded at least 8,443 COVID-19 cases, 4,335 recoveries and 194 related deaths.

According to DRC’s Government Spokesman, Jolino Makelele, the expected lifting of the restrictions is “conditioned by the implementation of certain prerequisites because the current issue is to learn to live with the COVID-19 pandemic, while fighting against its spread, and thus protect populations.”

“Barrier gestures must now become a new way of life,” Archbishop Utembi, who is the Local Ordinary of Kisangani Archdiocese, has emphasized.

On June 29, authorities in the country lifted quarantine measures in Kinshasa’s Gombe district, which had been put on lockdown to control the spread of COVID-19, thereby allowing government offices, restaurants and shops to reopen.

To minimize the risk of vulnerable groups contracting the disease, Catholic Bishops in the country have through their  development and humanitarian arm Caritas Congo ASBL launched a campaign to raise awareness about COVID-19

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“Our people need to get the right information about this virus and we must do everything possible to protect vulnerable groups especially the elderly from contracting this disease,” the Archbishop of Kinshasa, Fridolin Cardinal Ambongo said during the official launch of the campaign.

For a period of three months, Caritas Congo ASBL will seek to conduct the widest possible sensitization campaign about COVID-19 that will see its agents equipped with megaphones, banners, and posters traverse the neighborhoods of Kinshasa.

The agents will target the poorest neighborhoods where frequent power cuts do not allow the population to access messages that are broadcast on radios and televisions.