Burundian President Evariste Ndayishimiye inaugurated a Covid-19 screening center at Bujumbura Airport on Friday, August 20. The government acknowledges an increase in Covid-19 cases in the country, but it worsens the seriousness of the situation.
The picture is published by the Burundian Presidency. Of the dozens of people inaugurating the airport’s Covid-19 screening center, only one woman wears the mask. President Evariste Ndayishimiyes refrains from wearing this protection against the coronavirus.
Yet the boss admits it, there it is an upturn in the epidemic from north to south of Burundi. The country is now cooperating with the World Health Organization (WHO). It has reported an average of 156 new daily infections since July 22, up from 20 a day earlier. But officially, the charge remains at 10 dead.
A completely different picture is painted by medical staff: 13 dead in ten days at a hospital in Bujumbura. “We are overwhelmed,” an employee told SOS Médias Burundi. Several dying patients have been relocated elsewhere for lack of resuscitation sites. ”
“Sick people get medicine and recover” The mayor of Bujumbura sounded the alarm this week. To which the Home Secretary, chairing the Covid-19 Response Committee, replied: “There are no deaths due to the coronavirus in Burundi. The sick receive medicine and recover. “
The same reassuring tone at the Ministry of Health, which encourages the population to respect barrier gestures, but not to get vaccinated.
►Read also: Covid-19: Burundi’s government changes its vaccination strategy
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