Covid-19: Physical Concerts, Festivals to return in Rwanda

Physical concerts, festivals and exhibitions are set to return in Rwanda after the 18-month Covid-19 pandemic restriction.

The cabinet came to this resolution in a meeting that was chaired by President Paul Kagame on Wednesday, September 1, to among others, review the measures in place to combat the pandemic.

According to a communique issued by the Prime Minister’s Office, such events will be open for people who have been vaccinated.

“Concerts, festivals, exhibitions etc shall resume gradually for vaccinated and tested participants,” the communique reads in part, adding that Rwanda Development Board (RDB) will provide detailed guidelines in this regard.

Physical concerts and other similar gatherings have been on hold since 2020 started owing to their high potential in spreading the virus.

However, as the number of vaccinated people grow and also taking into consideration the reducing number of daily infections, the government has decided on opening up, albeit with caution.

The decision to open up was followed by placing curfew hours in the various districts.
The curfew hours in Kigali were reduced, allowing it’s citizens make unrestricted movements from 4am to 10pm, while businesses will be open until 9pm.

However, tighter measures were issued in eight districts since they have high Covid-19 incidence.

Places like Burera, Gicumbi which are part of these districts, curfew will apply between 4am and 8pm, while businesses must close by 7pm.
For the remaining districts, curfew will begin at 9pm.

The new measures will take effect nationwide starting from September 2 to 22.

The Rwandan government have since intensified vaccination efforts starting from Kigali, where a new campaign was launched targeting people aged 18 and above.

“A large number of people in Kigali live by the earnings they make on a daily basis, and that is why the previous lockdowns really hurt us. We hope that if the vaccination campaign goes well, it will give us opportunity to try to go back to our normal life, and we hope that our economy will rise again,” the city mayor, Pudence Rubingisa said.

Government, through the same communique issued on Wednesday continued to urge citizens towards observing preventive measures, warning that penalties will be applied for non-compliance.

S.S/All Africa