(Bloomberg) -- A rights group won a legal challenge to block the Malawian government from implementing a 21-day lockdown that was meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
The Human Rights Defenders Coalition won an injunction order from the Malawi High Court Friday, forcing the government to wait at least seven days before its lockdown can come into effect. The civil rights group wants the government to provide a social safety net for poor Malawians before it can go ahead with the measure, it said.
The court order culminates two days of anti-lockdown protests in the country's main cities. President Peter Mutharika declared the 21-day lockdown Tuesday as the virus continues to spread in the southern African nation, with 17 confirmed cases and two deaths as of Friday. He warned the country risks losing as many as 50,000 lives if it doesn't act with haste and slow the spread of the disease.
Across the world, movement restrictions are meeting resistance from workers who live hand-to mouth. Informal workers are disproportionately vulnerable to the disease as they are least prepared to survive a long cutoff and often are out of reach of support programs.
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