Kinshasa Bans Street Hawking Over Covid-19

Kinshasa, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 22nd Jun, 2021 ) :DR Congo's capital Kinshasa has tightened its Covid-19 restrictions, banning street hawking and large gatherings in a bid to tamp down rising infections spurred by the Delta variant.

Kinshasa governor Gentiny Ngobila has ordered a ban on gatherings of more than 20 people both indoors and outdoors, according to a decree seen by AFP on Tuesday.

"On public transport, only 50 percent of capacity will be tolerated, and motorbike taxis are authorised to carry no more than one passenger," said the document signed Monday.

Churches, public administration offices and businesses must also run at a maximum of 50 percent capacity, along with restaurants, which must close at 9.

00 pm.

DR Congo's daily caseload has shot up from 250 recorded infections on June 15 to 404 on Tuesday, 347 of them in the capital, according to the latest epidemiological update.

The infection rate appears to have been fuelled by the arrival of the highly transmissible Delta strain of the coronavirus, which was first detected in India.

Breaches of the new rules will be punishable with fines of up to two million Congolese francs ($1,000), Ngobila warned, while churches that fail to respect social distancing will be shut down for two weeks.

The country of 80 million has recorded 38,330 cases of Covid-19 since March 10, 2020, and 888 deaths from the virus.