Malawi court halts govt coronavirus lockdown plans

April 18: Lockdown halted by court

A High Court in Malawi has ordered government to restrain from implementing a lockdown aimed to help curb the spread of coronavirus in the southern African country.

President Peter Mutharika imposed the 21-day measure earlier this week but the announcement was met by protests in parts of the country.

With barely 24-hours for the measure to take effect, a civil society group, Human Rights Defenders Coalition (HRDC) applied for an injunction against the lockdown at the High Court in Lilongwe.

HRDC Chairperson Gift Trapence confirmed to the Nation newspaper on Friday that the injunction against the 21 day lockdown has been granted.

The restraining order is granted for 7 days and inter-parties hearing on the case is set for on 24th April 2020. Malawi’s coronavirus stats as of May 18 are as follows:

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April 2: Malawi confirms three coronavirus cases, 50th African country infected

Malawi president Peter Mutharika on Thursday confirmed that the country had recorded three cases of COVID-19. They are the first recorded cases in the southern African country.

Local news outlets report that the President made the announcement in a Special Address to the Nation. The address carried by the state-owned MBCTV lasted one minute and 23 seconds.

The president disclosed that all three cases were confirmed in Lilongwe. Mutharika said one of the patients is a 63-year-old who had recently travelled to India. The other two are her relation and her domestic worker.

A week ago, Mutharika declared a state of national disaster over the pandemic which continues to spread across the continent. With Malawi officially becoming the 50th African country to be infected, there are four countries uninfected – Lesotho, Comoros, South Sudan and Sao Tome and Principe.

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