With the holiday that marks Monday the Day of the Liberation of Southern Africa extending the weekend, Tuesday was the day chosen for the entry into force of the measures with which Angola hopes to curb the disease, which include the closing borders and banning public agglomerations of more than 200 people.
In addition to the suspension of classes, many companies decided to favor teleworking, including the state oil company Sonangol, where around 2000 people work.
Several banks have also implemented extraordinary preventive measures, now serving clients behind closed doors
Ministries and public bodies have also issued internal circulars defining new rules: in many cases, public service starts to be done due to a previous appointment and the pensioners' proof of life has been postponed to avoid crowds of people.
Visits to prisoners will be temporarily banned.
Political activities will also be conditioned. On March 18, the National Assembly decided to postpone plenary meetings and parties such as the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and the Wide Convergence of Salvation of Angola - Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE) revised its calendar activities, postponing meetings, congresses and celebrations.
Canceled concerts and closed movie theaters and restaurants are other consequences of the epidemic that Angola wants to try to avoid at all costs.
Some restaurants started to advertise on alternative social networks to continue operating that they will start offering home deliveries or in a “drive in” regime, delivering orders in car parks.
Official sports competitions, recreation and youth activities, are also suspended for a period of 15 days, as well as religious services and celebrations and musical shows.
The country currently records two positive cases of the disease caused by the new coronavirus, two Angolan citizens who reentered the country on 17 and 18 March, from Portugal, one of whom is an administrator of Sonangol.
Angola closed its air, land and sea borders to the circulation of people from 00:00 on March 20 for 15 days, extendable for an equal period due to the behavior of the pandemic of the covid-19.
The border suspension measure does not cover cargo flights, even those that are indispensable for humanitarian reasons or are at the service of Angolan foreign policy. It is also not applicable to the docking and disembarkation of cargo ships, being also allowed to disembark crews for medical reasons.
