According to a note from the President's Civil House, João Lourenço, the Minister of State and Head of the Security House of the President of the Republic, Pedro Sebastião, will coordinate the Intersectoral Commission for the Management of Measures Against the Expansion of Covid-19, following the "constraints" identified in the reception of citizens in the quarantine centre of Calumbo.
The deputy coordination will be ensured by the Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira.
The note mentions the need to ensure adequate reception and accommodation "in the face of current exceptional circumstances," ensuring that the executive is committed to this process "and will do everything in its power to safeguard public health and the greater good, the lives of all Angolans.
The quarantine centre in Calumbo is one of the places that currently receives hundreds of citizens from abroad and who will have to stay in isolation for 14 days to avoid the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus.
Angola has closed air, land and sea borders to the movement of people since midnight on 20 March, but the government has authorised some flights to transport Angolan citizens back to the country and repatriate foreign nationals.
Passengers on flights that arrived in Angola on 17 and 18 March were able to carry out home quarantine, but Health Minister Silvia Lutucuta said on Saturday that the quarantine would become exclusively institutional, on the same day that she announced the first two positive cases of infection.
Passengers who were sent to quarantine shared testimonies through social networks, complaining of being enclosed in an enclosure with bars, of poor accommodation, with several people sharing the same room, as well as a lack of food and water.
