Malawi government through the Ministry of Health has declared a 21 day total lockdown as a measure of fighting the spread of Covidi-19, a disease caused by coronavirus.
The total lockdown shall start from the midnight of Saturday, 18th of April to 9th May 2020, according to Ministry of Health Jappie Mhango, who is also chairperson for special cabinet Committee for Covid-19.
“Today, I am here to announce a lock down pursuant to section 31 of the same Act to contain the further spread of the deadly virus. The Lockdown will restrict the movement of people in order to minimize the spread of the virus,” said Mhango
In his address to the nation, Malawi President Professor Arthur Peter Mutharika said the lockdown could be extended beyond 9th May. He appealed to Malawians to comply with coronavirus preventive measures.
“The Minister has done so using powers vested in him under the Public Health Act. In his declaration of the lockdown, the Minister outlined specific measures that will be in force during the period of the lock-down.
I would like to urge you to fully comply with the measures because they are for the good of our country,” said President Mutharika
He added: “Currently, Malawi has suffered 2 deaths. As I speak, the United States of America has lost over 23,000 lives. Italy has lost over 20,000 people. The United Kingdom has lost over 11,000 lives.
Many more countries across the world have lost many lives. All our neighbouring countries have Coronavirus cases and lives are being lost. If we are not careful, Malawi can lose up to 50,000 lives. We need to act more now!”
COVID-19, which is now a global issue, was first discovered in December 2019 in Wuhan City in China and has since killed thousands of people across the globe including two people in Malawi.
It is now clear that APM, the old senile man, just want to cling on to power at all cost…..by using coronavirus to run away from the elections. This was a plan that was hatched a long time ago and we saw it coming through the firings of the army general etc. The minister has no powers to put our country under a lock down APM should not hide behind his minister of health, this lock down is illegal and should be challenged in a court of law.
The question I have for the DPP govt is this, have you put in place mechanisms to mitigate the economic impact that this lock down will have on so many ordinary people?
Only people in the south have finished harvesting their crops at the moment, what about those in the central and northern regions?
Will the government give money to all Malawians to survive on during the lock down period as all countries in the west have done with their citizens?
This lock down will create more hardships to many people than the problem it is intended to solve.
And if the DPP govt thinks that they will use the proposed lock down to deal with the opposition leaders in disguise when dealing with the revolt that will inevitably happen because people want to survive the you are making a big mistake.
You will leave office APM one day whether you like it or not…..blessed are those who leave office while they still have the respect of their people.