On 20 May, the official committee to fight the coronavirus said three of its workers were threatened at knifepoint, part of what the government last Friday described as "rising cases" of abuse of virus campaigners.
When official figures were quoted to him – the DRC has documented more than 3 300 cases rising at the rate of more than a hundred a day, almost all of them in Kinshasa, with 72 dead – Hussein was dismissive.
Many people surviving on day-to-day jobs have borne the brunt of emergency measures that President Felix Tshisekedi introduced on 20 March.
The deaths from Covid-19 include around a dozen people at the apex of power in the DRC, according to official figures.
"Scientifically, there is still no proof that has come forward to say anything other than that Covid-19 caused the deaths that we have regretfully seen in the president's circle," Tshisekedi's spokesperson, Tharcisse Kasongo Mwema Yamba Y'amba, told state broadcaster RTNC, which asked him about the rumours.
