Cameroon: Effectively fighting Covid-19 in schools, ignoring the real threats on the streets

Schools around Cameroon were given the green light to reopen their doors to students and pupils who are preparing for final year certificate examinations. The reopening of schools came after a close to three months of school shutdown following the ravaging effects of the coronavirus pandemic worldwide.

However, in a bid not to make the year blank and lost, schools were adequately prepared by constant disinfection of classrooms, installation of handwashing points all over schools, the availability of hand sanitizers to the students.

Firm instructions have equally been given by the government for a classroom to contain no more than 24 students/pupils in a single classroom, with every single student being made to always appear in their face masks. All these have been however followed to the latter.
The real danger that exists in Cameroon however does not lie in the schools but rather outside the schools. With Cameroon gradually approaching the ten-thousandth positive case, the relaxation of restrictions on drinking spots, clubs, and transport business will only help as a propeller to the continuous spread of the coronavirus in Cameroon.

It is virtually impossible to maintain social distancing rules in a club or putting on face masks in public eating and drinking spots. All these relaxations have given most Cameroonians who especially do not follow the media the impression that everything is fine. In the nation’s capital at that, public ceremonies are even organized by roadsides with large gatherings becoming more and more common.

Commercial transport busses in their usual styles have resumed the overloading of passengers they are known for. Even the facemasks wearing that was made mandatory by the President of the Republic now seems like a thing of the past for Cameroonians, as these facemasks are now only worn by students and persons going to do important business in government institutions.

In beer parlors, the common thing said by people is that the coronavirus pandemic is not as critical in Cameroon as the media paints the picture. Some people say the government has inflated the numbers of positive Covid-19 cases in Cameroon so that they can be given financial assistance from the international community.

In the face of this, there are no law enforcement officers to ensure that the preventive measures are followed by the citizens. Policemen themselves don’t put masks on. At the start of the pandemic in Cameroon when everyone was still alert, it was commonplace to enter into shops and be requested by the shopkeeper to wash your hands and sanitize your hands before he attended to you. All that is gone now and more so at the worst possible moment when coronavirus is starting to become a real threat to the African continent. The total number of cases for coronavirus cases on the African continent is already more than 150,000 and there are no signs it will be slowing down anytime soon.