The Government on Sunday July 25 announced that it was extending the lockdown in Kigali and eight districts where there was a high prevalence of Covid-19 cases, by another five days until July 31. The announcement was made by the Prime Minister through a statement. According to the statement, this was done to help consolidate the significant gains that have been registered over the past 10 days of the lockdown, which saw the positivity rate halved from 8.4 per cent to the current 4.4 per cent. According to World Health Organisation, a positivity rate that is below five cent implies that the country has the virus under control, and if this persists for at least two weeks, the world body advises that such a country may consider reopening. The government attributes these gains to the general support from the population who continues to take serious the various restrictions that have been put in place to contain the virus. Fortunately, this happens as country has recently started receiving more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, albeit in small quantities, and the inoculation exercise has resumed, starting with districts with high positivity rate. Some of these vaccines are coming from the Covax facility while others are being received from friendly countries, including the latest consignment that came from the United Arab Emirates. It is therefore a matter of time before the country achieves the set vaccination goal of 60 per cent by the end of 2022 after which the country may consider lifting many of the restrictions imposed to contain the virus. It therefore remains an uphill task. However, the ball is in our court as the public. If we adhere to the measures in place before achieving the 60 per cent threshold, the numbers will decline and so restrictions will be progressively lifted. This means that we can then go on with our livelihoods and at worst, avoid lockdowns which have economic implications, among other effects. Unfortunately, you still see people in our communities who only will adhere to these measures because they are being policed. It is incumbent upon us to own this fight if we are to win this struggle and get back to our pre-Covid lives.
