At least 75 people were arrested late Saturday night at several pubs in Rubavu, a district in North Western Rwanda near the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) after they were found violating directives meant to prevent further spread of COVID-19, a senior local administrative official confirmed APA in an interview.
The mayor of Rubavu district, Gilbert Habyarimana said the operations were conducted by the Police and local leaders on Saturday at around 10.00 pm local time.
Authorities in Rwanda have recently shortened the nation’s curfew hours to 2200-4as part of efforts to ease movement restrictions, but all bars should remain closed until further notice.
The violators include young people who were caught holding varied events and gatherings at night clubs; those operating bars or have turned their restaurants into dancing clubs; individuals that were not wearing facemask as a prerequisite when in public; and social distancing.
The spokesperson of Rwanda National Police , Commissioner oof Police John Bosco Kabera warned that there is no room to be complacent in this critical period.
He said that subjecting violators to spending a night in these centres does not stop there. They are followed up to ensure that they picked a lesson from the messages given to them on the safety practices and ensuring that recidivists are severely penalised.
As of Sunday, 34 people tested positive for Covid-19 in Rwanda, raising the tally of the country’s positive cases to 5,620.
The results were obtained from 3,916 Covid-19 sample tests taken in the last 24 hours.
In total, 5,163 people have recovered from Covid-19 in Rwanda.
CU/abj/APA