The measure is expected to continue until July 20. The conditions are strict: only one person per household has the right to go out on the street from 6 a.m. to noon. Until now, the measure extended until 5 p.m.

Accustomed to registering dozens of cases of coronavirus per day, the Malagasy health authority has reported hundreds of cases daily for the past three days, including 216 on Saturday, a record for the country.

The total confirmed cases in the country as at this morning is 2941, with 32 deaths and of 1801 people are currently living with the virus on the island with 31 serious cases, among the 23,400 people tested since the beginning of the pandemic.

It will be recalled that Madagascar has been promoting a home-grown “remedy” for COVID-19 which has attracted criticisms from different quarters because the remedy has not been universally tested and the major marketing sell point of the remedy was that the country has not recorded any death.