By Bubacarr Drammeh
According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of the United States of America, the novel Coronavirus spreads in the following way:
Person-to-person spread: The virus is said to spread mainly from person-to-person; between people who are in close contact with one another (within about 6 feet); or through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly inhaled into the lungs while the virus is still alive in the mucous, saliva or bodily fluids.
Contact with contaminated surfaces or objects: People can contract the COVID-19 virus by touching a surface or object that has the virus on it and shortly thereafter touch their own mouth, nose, or eyes. The prevalence of the disease has led experts to conclude that this mode of transmission is not the primary driver of the virus spreads.
Bubacarr Drammeh, Columnist at The Gambia Times
How do people protect themselves from the Corona virus? According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the following are effective ways of protecting yourself and others:
- Wash your hands frequently: Regularly and thoroughly clean your hands with an alcohol-based hand rub or wash them with soap and water;
- Maintain social distancing: Maintain at least 1-meter (3 feet) distance between yourself and anyone who is coughing or sneezing;
- Avoid touching eyes, nose and mouth: Hands touch many surfaces and can pick up viruses. Once contaminated, hands can transmit the virus to your eyes, nose or mouth. From there, the virus can enter your body and can make you sick; and
- Practice respiratory hygiene: Make sure you, and the people around you, follow good respiratory hygiene. This means covering your mouth and nose with your bent elbow or tissue when you cough or sneeze. Then dispose of the used tissue immediately.
What critical steps has been taken by The Gambia Government?
The Gambia government in an effort to stop the spread of the Coronavirus, upon confirming its first case, has closed its air space and land border for twenty-one days. Academic institutions are also closed for the same duration. Public gatherings “in whatever form” are suspended for three weeks. The Chief Justice issued a memo suspending – except “bail applications and other urgent matters” – all proceeding in all the courts indefinitely.
What Role should lawyers in The Gambia play to help contain the spread of Coronavirus?
Lawyers should be advocating to empty Mile II of non-violent and low-level offenders to reduce overcrowding. Lawyers should advocate that every single person in remand for a non-violent offenses should be released on bail. Those detained in police cells throughout the country for non-violent offenses must be released on police bail. The advocacy must be followed by action. Thus, lawyers should go to Mile II and Police Stations to offer their services to submit bail applications Pro Bono. Furthermore, lawyers must continue advocating for less crowding and more sanitation for every detained person and prisoner. My colleague, a Magistrate in Kenya, sent me the following statement on their fight on this front for their compatriots:
“We released all petty offenders with pending cases on a free bond and the superior court is reviewing all jailed convicts serving terms less than three years.”
If lawyers in Kenya are succeeding in these advocacies, why not lawyers in The Gambia. In fact, we should have been the ones leading the way for the world.
Furthermore, lawyers should advocate for small businesses that will be affected by the orders issued by the government. The government has no plan for people who lost their employment due to the closure of the border; and the ban on public gathering—for example Taxi drivers, “Video Club” operators, etc. The order seems to be unnecessarily overbroad when it states that “public gathering in whatever form is suspended for three weeks.” A ban on public gatherings is definitely critical, but we need to be very careful that it is not broad beyond necessity. Majority of our population lived under $2 a day. If they stay at home, without any plan or support from the government, how will they feed their families especially the vulnerable?
Finally, Lawyers should advocate for the government to impose a moratorium on rents, bills, and loans for those affected by the ban. I will end with this quote by Rennard Strickland and Frank Read in their seminal work “The Lawyer Myth: A Defense of the American Legal Profession.”
At the most pragmatic level, lawyers are society’s professional problem solvers. Lawyers are called upon to make distinctions . . . Lawyers are expected to restore equilibrium, to be balancers. Every discipline, every profession, every job, and every calling has a cutting edge. At the cutting edge, lines are drawn. Lawyers . . . are society’s ultimate line drawers. On one side of the line, the conduct, action, or inaction is proper; on the other side of the line, it is not.