By Tony Yayo
The Press Secretary at State House, Yusuf Keketoma Sandi, has disclosed to journalists that effective past Saturday, 11th April 2020, anyone caught defying the preventive measures put in place by the government to curb the spread of the COVID 19 outbreak in the country would pay a fine of ten million leones or face three years imprisonment. He made the disclosure recently following the announcement of new preventive measures by the government.
Under the new regulations, the government has issued a fourteen-day local travel ban across the entire country, except for those transporting food and other essential goods and services at district level.
The government have also announced a night curfew, commencing 9pm to 6am daily and a change in the official working hours for public and private workers from 9am to 4pm.
It could be recalled that, during the last Ebola outbreak, similar punitive measures were put in place and a good number of people were convicted and paid fines including an uncle of the former President.
According to Yusuf Keketoma Sandi, the punitive measures are being put in place to ensure that people abide by the government’s regulations. He noted that, in normal times, some ill-advised individuals across the country have always been in the habit of disobeying government rules and regulations and had gone scot-free. He added that despite the huge success made during the three days lockdown, certain individuals were arrested for breaching the preventive measures put in place.
The State House Press Secretary continued that the National COVID 19 Response Committee will be issuing out official passes to all essential workers to be able to work during the said period. Sandi continued that since they started implementing preventive measures there have been lots of arrests but most of them were released on medical grounds.