Gambia’s enforcement of coronavirus emergency regulations in the wake of the second wave, and advent of the new variant, of the coronavirus infections, has grown more complex with public’s defiance of the health safety guidelines and protocols laid down by the Gambia’s Ministry of Health.
More than one hundred arriving passengers who, according to the official version, have either tested positive, or were on quarantine” for coronavirus might continue to spread the virus after their non-stoppable march out of health facilities.
No reason was advanced for the alleged “flagrant violation” of Covid-9 guidelines and protocols recently put in place to curb the new spread of the virus in this small West Africa nation that continues to see more arrival of travellers from Covid hotspot countries, among others. It, however, appears that the health authorities had been battling the issue behind the scenes.
The Ministry has now resorted to publishing the names of those, they said, have evaded admission into health and isolation facilities, forty (40) of whom allegedly tested positive for Covid-19 and had been at large as early as January 20–therefore mingling with family members, relatives and the communities, in general. They risked prosecution by state, as per indications.
“It should be noted that it could be that some of the individuals on t
his list may have become negative or are no longer actively shedding the virus at the point of this publication; however due to their non-compliance to abide by the Ministry’s isolation and testing policy, we cannot entirely ascertain that”, the dispatch from Ministry of Health informed. These Covid-19 cases include travellers from hotspot countries who refused to abide by official protocols and, or report to the health authorities for the mandatory test upon arrival.
On the 5th of January, the Ministry of Health announced that there would be compulsory testing for all travellers coming from hotspot countries where the new covid strain had been identified. Among the countries flagged as hotspot destinations include the United Kingdom, Italy, United States and France.
In addition to having a valid COVID-19 PCR test results of 72 hours, travellers must undergo quarantine at their own cost.
This decision came in view of the fact that, the new strain of the coronavirus, which emerged in the United Kingdom, was spreading fast across the world.
Two weeks later, the new variant strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was identified in the Gambia. This however, did not change the existing public health strategies and recommendations by the Ministry of Health.
The recently concluded month-long nationwide tour by the President of the Republic was as usual marked by carefree congregations meant to ‘Meet the People’ as dictated by the constitution, despite the ‘third wave’ of the coronavirus.
On January 30, the president went ahead for a grand launch of his newly formed National People’s Party (NPP) converging thousands of supporters at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
Alongside, other political parties are holding rallies in the build up to the much-anticipated December 2021 presidential elections. Music concerts and festivals are holding as usual and the list of major public events is so long that the Ministry of Tourism was convinced enough to shut the entertainment industry down on January 26 over the recent upsurge in the cases of covid-19.
Her decision lasted for only few hours as a result of public outcry on social media projecting a situation of ‘selective justice’ in the observance of covid-19 safety measures.
Public perception to Covid-19 emergency regulations has somewhat relaxed despite the outbreak of the new strain which is thought to be more contagious than the viral strains currently in wide circulation.
The calls for reinforcement in the wearing of face masks, social distancing outside homes and quarantine of people exposed to positive cases, by the ministry, is undoubtedly, falling in deft ears of government and the people.
The Ministry of Health is the custodian of the “the Public Health Emergency Act (Dangerous Infectious Diseases) Protection Regulations 2020” which empowers its authority to take strict measures as to when and where necessary.
These powers were rigorously enforced in March 2020 following the confirmation of the third-ever Covid-19 case in the Gambia. Security personnel were deployed to restrict the movement of the immediate family of the patient who had travelled from France for a period of fourteen days.
By April 2020, the National Assembly endorsed a State of Public Emergency which was subsequently extended by the president based on constitutional powers vested in him. The regulations gradually covered the closure of all borders with government approving five hundred million dalasi (D500,000,000) Covid emergency fund as preventive and control mechanisms of the spread of coronavirus. Government also gave a huge food relief package to Gambians.
As of now, the Ministry stressed that “this serious and ruthless misconduct” of people absconding treatment and quarantine facilities would no longer be condoned under any circumstances.
“Anyone found not willing to cooperate with COVID-19 regulations will have their names and identifying information published on the media and thereafter, drastic measures will be taken against anyone that is non-compliant.”
The current situation of covid-19 in the Gambia is more serious than many previous times when borders were closed and State of Public Emergency enforced last year.
The country is ranked twelfth (12th) out of twenty (20) African countries with case fatality rates (CFR) higher than the global CFR (2.2%), by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention as of this week.
The Gambia with 3.2 percent is placed behind Chad with 3.5, and Tunisia with 3.3 case fatality rates. Sahrawi Republic with 15 percent records the highest CFR, followed by Sudan at 6.7 and Egypt at 5.7 percent.
Since March 2020, when the first of Covid-19 was tested in the country, 4,237 cases were recorded, 3,886 recoveries and 134 deaths. Currently, 217 cases are undergoing treatment at various health facilities, while 36 people are under quarantine.
As of last week, over 103 million cases and 2.2 million deaths have been reported globally, giving a case fatality rate of 2.2 percent.
In Africa, 3,608,486 cases have been reported, accounting for 3.5 percent of total cases reported globally. Of these cases, 3, 114, 033 recoveries, accounting for 86 percent of the total cases reported in Africa.
Deaths of 93,071 cases accounts for a case fatality rate of 2.6 percent and 4 percent of deaths reported, globally.
The author, Ebrima Bah, is a Multimedia Freelance Journalist based in Banjul, The Gambia.
