At the beginning of the festive season, the spokesperson of Rwanda National Police urged Rwandans not to observe the measures in place to fight Covid-19 for fear of being apprehended by the police. Instead, he said this should be done for the fear of the virus and what it can do to them or their loved ones. Police reported general observance of the Covid-19 measures during the just-concluded Christmas weekend, including people respecting curfew hours in place to curtail the spread of the virus that registered a spike a few weeks back. The hope is this spirit will be carried beyond the New Year celebrations. However, you cannot say with certainty that some people did not break these rules in one way or another; you hear for instance of motorists coming up with all sorts of tricks to blindside police officers. These tricks include using routes where they know the officers are not deployed for the night to continue movement even beyond curfew. Others are finding other ways to host drink ups in homes despite authorities making it clear that it is prohibited. It is very unfortunate that many people, despite the fact that the virus continues to knock on the door of more families by the day; have not appreciated the dangers that are associated with this pandemic. Just this past week, the Ministry of Health highlighted that the number of Covid-19 patients dependent on oxygen support is much more than it has ever been since the outbreak. The number of critically sick patients – which the ministry said recently is above 20, has increased over five times what it was over the previous months. Deaths have been increasing by the day, and fatalities are being registered among much younger people and with no underlying health conditions. It is therefore important that we all take the fight against the spread of the virus as a personal battle. We cannot afford to leave this to our police officers and other frontline workers. These workers also have families that they would want to be with during this season but they stay in hospital to take care of our loved ones. The least we can do to recognize their effort is to stay safe. Secondly, police cannot be everywhere to enforce these measures; a high degree of responsibility is therefore necessary.
