Just a day after Ethiopia declared a state of emergency, the nation started arrangements to rehabilitate homeless people. The street dwellers will be quarantined in Ethiopia. the five-month-long state of emergency will see to it that the COVID-19 virus does not spread. These street dwellers form part of the larger population of people in the country. They also have a right to be protected from the deadly virus.
This initiative comes as the country has lately reported a high number of cases of COVID-19. The country reported its first case of the deadly virus on March 13. Since then, cases have been reported in huge numbers daily.
Homeless quarantined in Ethiopia will be tested
Ethiopia reported nine new cases on Friday. This is the highest number recorded so far in a day since the 13th of march. However, the total number of cases from the additional ones have risen to sixty-five. This rehabilitation for the street dwellers is part of the nation’s response measure to curb the spread of the pandemic.
The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs of Ethiopia has consented to association arrangements with four foundation associations. This is to impact the recovery program. It was signed on Thursday. When lifted from the roads, the great number of street dwellers will be taken to assigned quarantine areas. They will remain there for about fourteen days and get COVID-19 screen tests.
After they test negative for COVID-19, the recipients will be posted to various recovery centers. They will be given essential needs and other social amenities. The first round of the program will be done in eleven urban cities in the nation, as per a source from the Ministry of Labor and Social affairs.
“We are lifting the homeless because they can’t self-quarantine and their shelters don’t allow them to maintain social distancing,” the source told Nation.
Rehabilitation program will help flatten the curve
We are doing so to flatten the curve of the virus among the homeless. And also for the sake of public health noting the high risk the virus could source. The source added. In the next number of days, 4200 street dwellers will be picked from the capital, Addis Ababa.
On Thursday, 3,204 street dwellers were taken off from the roads of Addis Ababa to isolation centers, as indicated by the source. Nation has discovered that an aggregate of 22,000 vagrants living in the capital and 11 significant urban areas will be picked in the first round of the initiative.
The street dwellers are the most vulnerable as the virus begins to spread. They are at the highest risk of getting infected by the deadly virus. Therefore, their living conditions and standards do not allow them to effectively fight the directive of staying indoors.
The homeless in Addis Ababa live at side paths in the road or swarmed shelters. For such a gathering of individuals, when the infection starts to spread, it will be hard to deflect it. Likewise, it will undermine all the preventive measures which had been experienced to slow the spread of COVID-19.
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