DR Congo disinfects parliament in anti-virus campaign

Cleaners moved into the parliament of the Democratic Republic of Congo to disinfect it on Monday, under a scheme to stamp out coronavirus in central Kinshasa, the epicentre of the country's outbreak of the disease.

Cleaners clad in white suits deployed sprays and fumigators to deep-clean the Palace of the People, which is the seat of the National Assembly and Senate, AFP reporters saw.

Legislators are to gather in congress in the coming days.

The operation is part of a campaign to disinfect the institutional and commercial centre of Kinshasa, where almost all of the DRC's known cases of coronavirus have occurred.

Gombe, a district of embassies, corporate offices and upmarket homes next to Lingwala where the parliament is located, has been in lockdown since April 6.

Cleaners have "disinfected the building (in Gombe) where several ministerial cabinets are housed," said Blaise Zahinda, a communications adviser for the environment ministry.

On Sunday, firemen hosed down the main streets of Gombe using water containing a five-percent solution of bleach.

The DRC, a country the size of continental western Europe, is considered by experts to be highly vulnerable to the spread of coronavirus.

It has a large population of 80 million, conflict in its east, crowded shantytowns in the capital and poor healthcare infrastructure.

The country has reported 235 cases of coronavirus, 20 of them fatal.

Infections have occurred in five out of the DRC's 26 provinces, led by the city-province of Kinshasa, which accounts for 223 cases. Most of those infections have been in Gombe.