In a message published through his Twitter account, João Lourenço congratulated the young Angolans who shared their experience in China on Angolan public television, considering them an example of a success story that should be followed.
“Your self-discipline was the secret of life’s victory over misfortune,” he said, five days after he declared a state of emergency due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which includes measures of social isolation.
Among internet users there are those who support the President, but also those who criticise the fact that TAAG airplanes have been made available to transport Angolans from Portugal, unlike what happened in China.
“Regarding these young students, I’d like to understand why Angola didn’t pick them up,” while “those from Portugal, Angola sent TAAG to bring them home,” criticized a social network user.
“One internet user commented, “It was preferable to risk the country’s life for an elitist minority,” while another questioned, “Couldn’t the young Angolans who were in Portugal have followed suit?
Several TAAG flights returned from Portugal in the week that Angola decided to close borders, before and after March 20, with passengers placed in home and institutional quarantine.
Angola has so far registered seven cases of infection by the new coronavirus, of which two have died and one has already recovered.
The patients are Angolan citizens who returned from Portugal in mid-March.
About 40 Angolan students were held back in February in Wuhan, the Chinese city that was the initial epicentre of the epidemic and was quarantined on 23 January, but the Angolan parliament rejected the request for repatriation.
