PRIME MINISTER SYLVESTRE ILUNGA ILUNKAMBA ON COVID-19 PANDEMIC

For the second time, Prime Minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba returned this Tuesday, May 26, 2020, to the Upper House of Parliament, in order to meet the concerns submitted to him by the elected officials, regarding the management of the coronavirus pandemic and its negative effects on the national economy.

ANSWERS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRIME MINISTER, HEAD OF GOVERNMENT TO QUESTIONS FROM SENATORS ON THE MANAGEMENT OF THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Kinshasa, May 26, 2020

Honorable President of the Senate,

Honorable Members of the Senate Office,

Honorable Senators,

In accordance with the time allowed for me at the end of the oral question session with debate, on Thursday, May 21, 2020, I come back today to your august chamber to answer the concerns raised by the Honorable Senators.

But first of all, allow me to sincerely thank all the Honorable Senators who took part in this republican exercise provided for in Article 138 of our Constitution.

At the same time, I would like to extend my gratitude to the Honorable Senators who, following their colleague Jean BAKOMITO GAMBU, were good enough to voice the legitimate concerns of the Congolese people about the health crisis linked to COVID-19 and its effects on the different sectors of national life.

During the aforementioned session, we were asked, together with the ministers and the other personalities who accompanied me, by various and relevant questions which should conveniently be grouped into four aspects:

1) Questions relating to the management of the COVID-19 epidemic itself;

2) Legal and security issues;

3) Questions related to the possible resumption of lessons; and

4) Economic issues.

As regards first of all the management of the COVID-19 epidemic, the Honorable Senators LUESE, AGITO, MUTOMBO and LUKENGE were kind enough to express their concerns about the effectiveness of the communication strategy deployed since the start of the health crisis.

It is obvious that prevention, and therefore awareness-raising, remains the main weapon in the fight against COVID-19. The issue of the communication strategy here essentially refers to behavior change, that is to say the possibility for our populations to adopt the recommended barrier measures.

The current health crisis requires a coherent strategy of political and community engagement. Knowing what our compatriots imagine about the disease would have been the prerequisite for appropriate communication responses.

But COVID-19 surprised all the countries of the world, and each government has learned to adapt its strategies as action is taken. In the same way, our communication strategy has been refined with contributions from experts from the Ministry of Health and that of Communication and Media, with a view not only to an appropriate media strategy but also to the development of networks and community relays. and proximity.

Despite the resistances observable in certain popular communes, it is clear that awareness is growing more and more.

Senators LUESE, MUTOMBO, MUYUMBA and MOLISHO questioned the merits of continuing to maintain the current confinement of the town of Gombe. As a reminder, this confinement is consecutive to the context that prevailed when the first confirmed case of COVID-19 disease appeared in our country. Originally considered to be the epicenter of coronavirus disease, the commune of Gombe remains, however, a nerve center of business. Incessantly, its deconfinement, both gradual and orderly, will concern branches of activity other than banks and grocery stores.

The issue of testing and screening has also been at the center of concerns regarding the management of the COVID-19 epidemic. In this regard, I must thank Senators NGONDA, KUNDIANZA, MOLISHO, MUKALAY and VUNABANDI for expressly recalling the urgency of decentralizing testing.

To understand the problem of testing, it should be remembered that the INRB is the National Public Health Laboratory responsible for monitoring endemic and epidemic diseases. To this end, since 1998, it has created national reference laboratories with the help of partners for the surveillance of poliomyelitis, measles, yellow fever, monkey pox and viral haemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola.

In 2005, the INRB set up a special laboratory for the surveillance of respiratory diseases, throughout the national territory. As soon as the COVID-19 pandemic emerged, the INRB had sent the head of the respiratory diseases laboratory in training to the Pasteur Institute in Dakar in advance. It is thanks to this anticipation that the INRB was able to diagnose the first case of COVID-19 in Kinshasa, on March 10, 2020.

Although planned in our strategic response plan, immediate decentralization was not possible, as the INRB diagnostic equipment was not transferable to other sites. In addition, molecular biology reagents for diagnostics were only suitable for high-tech equipment from the INRB.

Starting next week, diagnostic and screening tests will be decentralized, as the government has purchased more than a million rapid tests and GEnXpert cartridges are also available for wider diagnosis in the country.

In Kinshasa, a COVID-19 laboratory is planned at the University Clinics, the Ngaliema Clinic, the Monkole Hospital Center, the Sino-Congolese Friendship Hospital in Ndjili and certain private hospitals in the city. In the provinces, priority is given to Kongo-Central, Haut-Katanga, North and South Kivu, Kwilu and Ituri.

It should be noted, for the information of Senator VUNABANDI, that the installation of the COVID-19 laboratory recently carried out at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Kinshasa cost nearly $ 750,000, including the reagents.

Honorable President of the Senate,

Honorable members of the Senate Office,

Honorable Senators,

Other questions, asked by the Honorable Senator KUNDIANZA as well as by the Honorable Senators ETUMBA and VUNABANDI related to the involvement and contribution of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in the fight against the pandemic.

I must inform your august Chamber that my government through the aforementioned Ministry has taken various initiatives. Among which, there is the establishment of a Scientific Commission to support the response, which has produced a report with useful and precise recommendations, on prevention, on the search for alternative methods of support for taking in charge, as well as on screening and on strategic information. Details of these recommendations are contained in a report available from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Also, at its 31st meeting on May 15, the Council of Ministers instructed the Minister of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation to gather around him the Scientific Committee, the Technical Secretariat and the Task Force with a view to ” harmonize the recommendations of scientists.

The role of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation in the strategic autonomy of the fight against COVID-19 is due to the promotion of the results of our researchers. Working sessions have made it possible to set up a “National Scientific Pool” through which he will now pilot and coordinate all scientific and technological research coming both to support the response of COVID-19 and to the management of multisectoral consequences during and possibly after this pandemic.

Still related to epidemiological management, the Honorable Senators ILANGA, MUYUMBA and MUTOMBO asked for clarification from us on the general conditions of quarantining passengers after their arrival at Ndjili airport. On the subject, there was the case of the Air France flight whose passengers would not have undergone the measure of quarantine.

Let’s first recall the procedure in this matter: everyone entering our territory is subject to usage controls under the supervision of agents from the National Border Hygiene Program. The government imposed quarantine in hotels for 14 days. You have followed, Honorable Senators, these complex accommodation and comprehensive care operations.

In view of the massive returns of our compatriots to the country, we have evolved in the methodology. For the compatriots returned to the country by the Air France flight mentioned, the Government has now set up a voluntary home monitoring and isolation mechanism, under the control of the response teams of the Technical Secretariat.

In the process, the Honorable Senator AGITO wanted to know, given the high number of confirmed cases, where all of these patients are kept. It is a fact that in our country, and probably elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa, 85% of cases develop a mild form of the disease without respiratory complications. They are isolated at home and with or without chloroquine. They recover their health. The only advice the doctor gives them is to drink lots of water and rest.

It is in this context that it is probably necessary to place the statement of Professor MUYEMBE made in an RFI broadcast on COVID-19 in Africa, during which the scientist tried to explain the low rates of morbidity and mortality in Africa.

In our country, patients with moderate and severe forms of the COVID-19 epidemic are treated in the medical training selected for this purpose.

Honorable Senators,

Is there a vaccine for COVID-19? What about the protocols that are quoted daily in the media? What about the Malagasy solution, which benefited from the participation of our compatriot Doctor MUNYANGI? This is the substance of the questions of the Honorable Senators MAKILA, KUNDIANZA and MANGYADI.

On the subject, the methodological and strategic role of the Ministry of Scientific Research and Technological Innovation is of prime importance.

On the one hand, he guided all the draft protocols received by the Multisectoral Pandemic Control Committee of COVID-19 via the Ethics Committee, with a view to possibly carrying out clinical trials. On the other hand, this Ministry supervises researchers who will, after consultations, proceed to pool their research results to agree on a single protocol for the treatment of COVID-19.

Based on technical information provided to the Government, there are currently eight COVID-19 vaccine candidates worldwide. Here, a unique protocol is finally ready and will soon be submitted to the National Ethics Committee and to regulatory authorities in order to obtain authorization for clinical trials on the various preparations proposed by Congolese and foreign researchers.

Regarding the Malagasy protocol called Covid-Organic, the INRB received a donation of a large batch of this solution from the President of the Republic. These are 800 curative doses and 400 preventive doses of Covid-Organic. The Madagascan product will be used first as a study. A protocol has just been drafted and shared with scientists from Congo-Brazzaville. The protocol will soon be submitted to the Ethics Committees of the two countries for approval before clinical trials.

Honorable Senators, as you know, in the absence of a final solution, we will not resort to additional measures, but rather to enforce the various sanitary measures already in place, namely frequent hand washing, physical distancing and the general and compulsory wearing of masks in public. In this regard, the Honorable Senators AGITO, ETUMBA and MOLISHO wanted to know the exact nature of the operation of the 15 million masks that your Government plans to have produced.

These masks are intended primarily for the most disadvantaged layers. The manufacturing of these masks will be carried out with the greatest transparency, not only in compliance with hygienic and medical standards, but also in compliance with public procurement standards. In this period of economic downturn, we will favor local operators in order to support national entrepreneurship.

Honorable President of the Senate,

Honorable members of the Senate Office,

Honorable Senators,

With regard to the legal and security aspects, which were the subject of the concerns raised by your august Chamber during the sitting of last Thursday, May 21, it is worth mentioning in particular the absence of law on implementing measures of the state of emergency, underlined by the Honorable MUTOMBO, MUYUMBA and MANGYIADI.

It is to preserve the lives of the Congolese that the Head of State acted, from the first reported cases, in the face of this fierce health emergency represented by COVID-19, by proclaiming a state of health emergency according to the ordinance n ° 20/014 of March 24, 2020.

In its judgment of April 13, 2020, the Constitutional Court, sitting on matters of constitutional review, had declared the said order to be in conformity with the Constitution. This does not detract from the relevance of the Honorable Senators’ concern over the need for the Law relating to the procedures for applying a state of emergency. A bill to that effect is being prepared, which the Government intends to table in the office of one or the other legislative chamber as soon as possible.

For her part, in the security chapter, the Honorable Senator KUNDIANZA noted that after the arrest of Mr. Zacharie BADIENGISA, known as NE MWANDA NSEMI, 190 followers of BUNDU DI MAYALA were transferred to Kongo Central without specific and appropriate measures in the context of the current health crisis. Is there any connection between this event and the increase in confirmed cases since then observed in this province?

It comes back to me from the Ministry of the Interior, Security and Customary Affairs that the followers of NE MUANDA NSEMI, arrested on April 24, 2020, were transported by the Police, each to their home territory of Kongo Central. The operations were carried out in accordance with the rules of hygiene and physical distancing, especially during their passage at the two checkpoints installed on both sides of the Kinshasa-Kongo Central border.

The Honorable BULANSUNG and MOBUTU wanted to know if, in mid-June, our borders will be reopened following the reopening of international flights announced by European countries.

On this issue, until the Council of Ministers formally examines it, the only authorized flights remain those related to the repatriation of our compatriots who are stranded outside the country, and to the repatriation of foreign citizens stranded in our country.

Finally, the Honorable Senators LUKAMATA and MIKOMBA called for the need to decongest the prisons in order to prevent the possible spread of COVID-19 in a prison environment.

On this issue, it should be recalled, as everyone has seen on television screens, that the process of decongested prisons began throughout the national territory, well before the current health crisis. With the advent of COVID-19, the congestion continues to apply to several groups at the same time, but in an orderly manner and in strict compliance with the conditions set by the prosecution.

The very nature of the offenses committed by inmates limits the cases eligible for release. Here are excluded from any possibility of release, with particular regard to blood offenses, rape of minors, attacks on national security.

In view of the upsurge in urban terrorism, the Executive, which has only injunction over the judiciary, is faced with a difficult choice which it unfortunately has to make, due to COVID-19, between the obligation to protect the public and the need to incarcerate criminals in the event of a repeat offense.

Honorable Senators,

To close my remarks completely on the epidemiological management aspects of the crisis, I will raise more specific questions, linked to media news. The alleged case of coinage of COVID-19 corpses, noisily raised by social networks, has hit the headlines even beyond national borders. The question was recalled in particular by Senator MANGYIADI.

This is an opportunity for me to challenge the responsibility of users of social networks, always in search of the sensational, when the moments we are going through are extremely serious. Do we really have to remember that the objective of the Multi-sectoral Response Committee is to reduce lethality?

The results of our efforts are convincing: we started from almost 12%, last March, to reach 4% mortality today. Why then would the country buy corpses to increase the number of COVID-19 deaths?

That said, Honorable Senators, I would now like to address a third aspect of your concerns that is of interest to the majority of parents that we are, namely, the aspect related to the resumption of schools.

As you know, in public health, prevention is the most appropriate means of protecting the population. The President of the Republic made a decision last March to close schools, including in the uninfected provinces. In fact, 19 of our provinces are not affected by the pandemic. The Government is continuing to reflect on the reopening of schools, with the Technical Secretariat for the response and educational partners, including parents’ associations.

At a time when the curve of the progression of the pandemic is still ascending, in the infected provinces, the responsibility obliges us to observe the greatest caution. Another reflection is underway on the possibility of authorizing the holding of exams just for the final classes of 6th secondary and primary. And always in strict compliance with physical distance and preventive measures. But it all depends on the evolution of the pandemic.

When opening schools, we must in fact ensure that all the necessary measures are taken to prevent the spread of the disease in the largest part of our population. I obviously want to talk about our children, the future of our country.

With regard to the economic aspects, I note that five important themes have been the subject of the concerns of this august Chamber.

First, the Honorable Senator LUESSE was interested in the question of the measures taken by the Government to support small trade, in particular that of small restaurateurs and “malewa” who lost their capital. In short, this concern evokes the situation of most households in the informal sector.

More generally, what is planned, in the third axis of the Multisectoral Emergency Mitigation Program of COVID-19, is support for the populations through measures and actions intended to preserve purchasing power guaranteeing them acceptable access to food and public utilities. This axis represents 53% of the estimated cost of the Program in 2020.

In the same vein, in response to the concern of the Honorable Senator BULANSUNG, the Government intends to help Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises through the REIT which retains an envelope of US $ 10 million for the financing of projects relating to the agriculture, fishing, animal husbandry, agro-industry, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, as well as support for marketing and maintenance at concessional interest rates.

Second, the issue of the tax burden and its budgetary impact has been the subject of particular concern by the Honorable Senators MUTOMBO and MATATA.

Wanting to understand the level of assignments provided for in the Budget Collective in preparation, Senator MUTOMBO expects the Government to make a clear distinction between the part of the drop in budget revenue due to the underperformance of financial management and the fall in revenue that would be linked to effects of the Coronavirus pandemic.

It is true that the decline in revenue from March is mainly explained by measures to mitigate the negative effects of COVID-19 for supply support and household well-being through exemption from all taxes, duties, levies and charges on the import and sale of inputs and pharmaceutical products, as well as the suspension for a period of three months of the collection of VAT on the sale of mass consumer products .

The drop in the rate of mobilization of revenue in the first two months of 2020 is the result of the drop in the effort to mobilize and the overestimation of budget forecasts. The Budget Collective’s forecasts, which you will soon be examining, will be more rigorous and will be accompanied by concrete reforms and measures aimed at maximizing revenues for the rest of the year.

This is an opportunity to examine the assertion of the Honorable Senator MATATA that: the economic crisis resulting from the health crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to continue in 2021, and therefore the current budgetary difficulties . And for good reason, the profit tax is based on the results of the previous financial year, that is to say the financial year 2020.

Obviously, Senator MATATA’s concern falls within the framework of the strong hypothesis of continuation and persistence of the current internal and international situation. In this case, in fact, the economic crisis will continue in 2021 with worsening budgetary difficulties. However, several informed observers, in view of the deconfinement measures taken or envisaged around the world, note that the international economic situation may improve in the second half of this year. Improving the international environment is the main impetus for the recovery of our economy, particularly through the revival of mining activity.

As a result, in the event of a gradual change in the domestic and international situation, the business climate can improve and hence their results. The tax on professional profits will also rise.

Without prejudice to the assumptions mentioned above, the Government attaches particular priority to macroeconomic stabilization and the improvement of the business climate. In this way, the residual income taxes, in the first case, will be preserved. In the second case, the framework for collecting income taxes will be provided.

Third, the Honorable Senator MUYUMBA expects the Government to clarify whether all the provinces affected by COVID-19 benefit from the National Solidarity Fund against COVID-19. And what is the distribution. Without doubt, as its name suggests, this Fund has a national character. In the ordinance which established it, it is specified that the financial resources to be collected will be used to finance essential supplies such as personal protective equipment and health workers who are on the front line throughout the national territory. The distribution of such a Fund cannot be arbitrary, it will be decided and implemented according to the specific needs felt by each community.

Fourth, the issue of resumption of work and activity, regardless of the size of the business, has been the subject of concern in particular by the Honorable MUKALAY. As you know, the last Council of Ministers recognized the need for a gradual resumption of certain economic activities suspended following COVID-19, especially in certain promising sectors such as the mining and manufacturing sectors.

Finally, fifthly, the question of donor support was also invited to the debate. In this regard, the Honorable Senator LUANDO asked for details on the allocation of $ 132 million intended for the fight against COVID-19. It is expected that this amount will be used for prevention and precaution, awareness and communication activities, tests and screenings, as well as for strengthening management capacities, research and clinical trials and for bonuses and snacks for nursing staff.

In response to the concern of the Honorable Senator MOLISHO, the amount of US $ 47.5 million from the World Bank is funding for “Strategic preparation and the response to Covid-19”. Half of it is a donation approved on April 6, 2020, and the other half is a credit approved at second reading by the Senate on May 21.

Honorable President of the Senate,

Honorable Members of the Senate Office,

Honorable Senators,

These are the essential elements of the response that I had to provide to the very relevant concerns expressed by some of you, following the oral question with debate that the Honorable Jean BAKOMITO GAMBU was good enough to address on behalf of of the provinces you represent.

I ask for your indulgence if this or that other question was inadvertently omitted.

In any event, I have taken stock of the concerns raised by the management of the COVID-19 pandemic, and of your determination, displayed by your judicious observations, to support your Government in mitigating the negative effects of COVID -19 on the social and economic life of our populations.

My Government and I remain and will always remain open to your advice and possible suggestions.

Thank you.