COVID-19: Senegal lifts curfew, allows international flights

Senegal president Macky Sall on Monday announced that the country would be lifting its curfew and state of emergency imposed to tackle the coronavirus (COVID-19) lockdown.

Sall also stated that international flights would resume from next month in the West African nation.

In a televised speech, Sall pointed to the economic fallout of the pandemic, saying that growth in the country would slow “from to 6.8 percent to 1.1 per cent or even less”.

Senegal could even see a recession, he suggested, saying that “all our productive activity must be resumed in order to get our economy going again.

“Just as we cannot let the virus take our lives and our health, we cannot let it take our economic health and life,” Sall added.

The president was speaking from his residence where, although he has tested negative for the coronavirus, he has spent the past week in quarantine after coming into contact with an infected person.

“Given this double necessity, I have decided to lift the state of emergency and the curfew starting from 2300 GMT on Tuesday,” he said. 

Senegal would reopen its borders to international air travel from July 15, but its land and sea borders would remain closed.

Face masks will remain mandatory in public and markets will be closed for one day per week for cleaning.

Senegal has officially declared 6,698 cases of coronavirus so far and 108 deaths, but the disease appears to be spreading and recent media reports have suggested that medical centres are overstretched.