Somalia imposes partial lock down to curb COVID-19 spread

The civil servants will work from home and the public was ordered to wear the facemasks at markets, mosques, transport, and workplace with a limit on the travels within the country.

News Keydmedia Online
3 March 2021

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia has imposed new COVID-19 measures to curb virus spread amid rising cases of infections and deaths due to the weak health system in the war-torn Horn of Africa country.

Speaking to the state media, the country’s information minister Osman Dubbe has announced that all educational institutions for two weeks and banned public gatherings for 30 days and wedding events.

The civil servants will work from home and the public was ordered to wear the facemasks at markets, mosques, transport, and workplace with a limit on the travels within the country.

The minister added that International arrivals at Mogadishu airport are mandated to have a negative Covid-19 PCR test within 72 hours on arrival and to isolation. The measures will take effect on March 3.

Somalia recorded 126 new coronavirus infections and 32 recoveries in the past 48 hours. It also confirmed the death of 6 people, including a lawmaker, taking the death toll to 249.

The country was expected to receive 1.2 million doses of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine doses last month to cover 600,000 frontline health workers but that did not happen at a time of a critical time.

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