Democratic Republic of Congo has denied any manipulation of its figures for coronavirus cases and deaths
The debate erupted when health
authorities revealed the new COVID-19 results from DR Congo, which stands at 63
deaths out of 2,025 cases, most of them in the capital, Kinshasa. Thus far, 312
people have been recovered.
The vast Central African country, one
of the poorest in the world, reported its first case on 10 March. Late on
Friday, the government announced that a doctor and a hospital supervisor had
been charged and later released on accusations of misleading coronavirus data.
The arrests were made after "a
disagreement over a patient who died this month," the government news
release reported. The country’s Council of Ministers met on Friday after
President Felix Tshisekedi asked the health minister to investigate rumours of
fake patient deaths linked to the virus.
"There is a hostile media
campaign being waged against our country by some international media, with the
intention of tarnishing its reputation in connection with the management of
COVID-19," the Council of Ministers said in the minutes of the meeting.
They also condemned the attacks on the
Kinshasa Coronavirus Prevention and Response Teams, urging the Minister of
Justice to act rigorously against the perpetrators of these acts”.
Parliament, meanwhile, voted on Friday
to extend the state of emergency order by 15 days for the third time.
A team of Chinese medical experts that
arrived in Kinshasa earlier this month found no evidence that the number of
virus cases or deaths were distorted, Jean-Jacques Muyembe, DR Congo’s
coronavirus front man, told a news conference on Friday.
“Cases are less severe here than in
Europe or the United States. We have a younger population that is more
resistant to infection,” Muyembe said.
Zhu Jing, the Chinese ambassador to DR
Congo, said that the team of Chinese doctors did not notice any "alien
patients."
He said: "The hospitalized
patients are indeed suffering from a pandemic,."
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