East Africa: Rwanda installs portable washbasins in effort to prevent coronavirus

Amid rising cases of coronavirus across the world, Rwanda in East Africa has come up with an innovative method to prevent the deadly virus from spreading in the African nation. The government has deployed portable washbasins at bus stops to ensure passengers wash their hand before boarding buses. While Rwanda has not reported a single case of coronavirus so far, the government’s decision to set up washbasins for commuters as a preventive measure is noteworthy. Kigali, Rwanda’s capital, has mandated that everyone must wash their hands before boarding public transport.

'Alarming levels of inaction'

On March 11, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus as pandemic which has forced governments to take drastic measures to contain the disease. Speaking at a press briefing, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus expressed concern about alarming levels of spread and severity and alarming levels of inaction.

“We have therefore made the assessment that COVID-19 can be characterized as a pandemic,” said Ghebreyesus.

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The WHO chief cautioned against using the word carelessly to cause unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over. Ghebreyesus added that the UN health agency has rung the alarm bell loud and clear and urged countries to take urgent and aggressive action.

“If countries detect, test, treat, isolate, trace, and mobilize their people in the response, those with a handful of cases can prevent those cases becoming clusters, and those clusters becoming community transmission,” he said.

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Europe has been witnessing a sharp increase in the number of coronavirus cases with Italy being the worst-hit. Italy has reported more than 12,000 cases with the death toll rising to 827. While Europe and the United States grapple with the rising number of cases, the rate of infections in China, the worst-affected country, has slowed down. According to the latest report, 11 new deaths in China due to coronavirus infections have been confirmed, taking the total death toll because of the deadly virus to 3,169. 

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