However, even the best possible response could not paper over deep the underlying vulnerabilities in a country whose per capita public spending was a mere $US35 ($54) in 2018. This chronic underdevelopment rendered most of the preventative measures announced by the President impracticable for the Kinois, as Kinshasa residents are known.

Most live day-to-day, making stockpiling essentials and staying at home impossible. Access to clean water is also limited, making hygiene measures difficult to follow; and the public transport system, encouraged to pack as many people in as possible in order to run economically, makes social distancing unworkable.

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In addition, public distrust in government institutions, endemic corruption and even worse living conditions in most areas outside the capital make the possibility of a serious outbreak in the country's eastern provinces a nightmare scenario.

The vulnerability of the provinces — where there is severely limited state authority and persistent armed conflict — cannot be overstated. Indeed, in 2019 Ebola and conflict made for a deadly combination in an area of North Kivu Province known as "the triangle of death", leading to civilian massacres, attacks on Ebola treatment centres and United Nations peacekeeping bases.

Civil society and advocacy groups have conducted widespread awareness campaigns, to a mixed reception of acceptance, scepticism and fear. Although such organisations are often the government's harshest critics, for now they are operating as allies to avoid the high death tolls of other countries.

Floribert Anzulini, president of Filimbi, a national human rights group, has been leading one such drive.

"It is difficult for the majority of Kinois to follow the guidelines when they struggle from day to day," he said, "they have to deal regularly with typhoid fever, malaria, cholera… why should they consider this disease any different?," Anzulini says.

"Isolation is not possible for most Congolese; they would prefer risking catching the disease than certainly dying from hunger."

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His organisation has chosen to focus on the importance of good hygiene practices, face masks and social distancing, rather than asking people to stay home.

The lack of public confidence in the system, however, has perhaps been more telling. Even armed with the most persuasive and up-to-date information, overcoming the trust deficit for an administration – whose last election results were heavily contested and never fully released – would be harder than eradicating the virus itself. Indeed, in the early stages of the epidemic, there was a popular belief that the government was faking the disease’s arrival so that ministers could pocket aid money, or that it was some kind of "western plot" to eliminate the Congolese and pillage their natural resources.

Overall, coronavirus proves how critical trust in state institutions and public investment are, something often taken for granted in more developed countries. Without these, only the self-reliance of the Congolese people could prevent the current 863 confirmed cases and 36 deaths from the worst – broad propagation in the dense capital and a multifaceted disaster in the conflict-riddled eastern provinces.

If this were to happen, even after coronavirus is long gone from other countries, it could well join the likes of the plague, measles and tuberculosis as imported, constant parts of Congolese life.

The World Health Organisation said on Friday COVID-19 could kill between 83,000 and 190,000 people in Africa in the first year if not contained.

The virus hit Africa later than other continents and transmission rates are lower than elsewhere. Still, this could translate into a prolonged, years-long outbreak, WHO said.