“Our biggest concern is related to the movement of citizens,” said the spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), Valdemar José, at a press conference in Luanda.
Although this Tuesday there was not a circulation as intense as the one registered on Monday, still the one that existed "is worrying", he considered, taking into account that the projections of the Ministry of Health point to the possibility to have 10,000 cases of covid-19 infection by June.
Between 00:00 on Monday and 00:00 on Tuesday nine citizens were detained for disobedience in the provinces of Luanda, Benguela, Malanje and Cuanza Sul.
This Tuesday, 37 arrests for disobedience were carried out and 65 citizens were taken to their homes.
175 citizens were also arrested who tried to cross the borders in the provinces of Zaire, Cabinda, Moxico and Lunda Norte and closed 26 informal markets.
Valdemar José added that municipal markets are fully functioning, but informal ones “continue to be a major concern for defense and security forces”.
The spokesman said, however, that the police are in contact with market administrators, in order to create sanitary conditions to open these spaces to trade, respecting the measures imposed by the presidential decree that defines the rules to be observed during the state of emergency that will last until 11:59 pm on 11 April.
These include restrictions on the movement of people on the streets and a ban on opening restaurants to the public or commercial establishments selling non-food products.
Among the detainees is a Chinese couple who tried to bribe agents with 30,000 kwanzas so that their appliance and furniture store could continue to operate, as well as pastors of religious cults.
Some had already been warned, but still "due to insistence and resistance, the owners of some churches opened these establishments and, in addition to the compulsory closure measure, were also detained," said the MININT official.
Valdemar José recalled that in Italy there were many cases of contamination in churches, stressing that it is not a matter of restricting the right of religious confessions.
The police also made 114 dispersions of clusters, some with children “late at night”.
103 vehicles were also apprehended that are dedicated to the collective taxi service, because they did not fulfill the maximum capacity of one third of the capacity, as well as 390 mototaxis in the different provinces.
The spokesman also called for citizens to be held accountable for the use of the emergency line (111), which received 20,227 calls, of which only 1,616 were valid.
The MININT official apologized for any excesses of the security forces and discouraged the use of coercion, guaranteeing that law enforcement officers are penalized, but he also warned of the large volume of false information and the need for citizens to comply with the assumptions criminal law and the provisions of the presidential decree.
Valdemar José stressed that the capacity of the penitentiary system is just over 20 thousand people, currently with about 26 thousand, appealing to citizens to follow the instructions issued by the authorities and stay at home.
