Harare (New Ziana) –President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday extended the Covid-19 national lockdown by a further two weeks, but allowed partial re-opening of the crucial mining and manufacturing sectors in order to keep the economy running.
Zimbabwe was due to end its 21 day lockdown on Sunday.
But, President Mnangagwa said the extension was necessary given the rising number of cases in Zimbabwe.
“With the World Health Organisation counselling against relaxing lockdowns currenly adopted by almost all countries of the world, guided by these realities and to allow ourselves greater leeway to prepare for worse times which are likely ahead, government has decided to extend with immediate effect the national lockdown by a further 14 days,” he said in a televised address to the nation.
“That means the national lockdown which would have expired at midnight stands extended by another two weeks up to 3rd May 2020. It has been a very hard decision my government has had to take reluctantly but it has been a necessary and unavoidable decision in the circumstances in which we find ourselves.”
President Mnangagwa said Zimbabwe was yet to meet WHO conditions for lifting the lockdown including when the transmission of the virus is fairly under control.
Zimbabwe currently has 25 confirmed Covid-19 cases including three deaths and two recoveries.
He said the country was in a precarious position given that it was now treating local transmissions and more Zimbabweans were expected to return home from Covid-19 hit countries.
“This presents an unavoidable but growing threat to our nation as we must accommodate all our returning citizens,” he said.
In partially lifting restrictions in the mining and manufacturing sectors, President Mnangagwa said this was necessary in order to keep the economy running.
“With this objective in mind, government has decided to allow the mining sector to scale up operations even then within parameters set by the World Health Organisation regarding social distancing and other public health safety measures,” he said.
But, before resuming operations, the returning workforce in the mining sector will be immediately screened and tested for Covid-19.
“In respect of the manufacturing sector, I have further directed that limited operations resume in the national interest but mindful of the public health safeguards as already announced. Inspectors will be visiting all operations to ensure these safeguards are being strictly adhered to.
“This reprieve covers our manufacturers in our informal sector and SMEs as well who have to use these two weeks to rebuild their capacities and stocks. The responsible ministry is also directed to work closely with health authorities to ensure there is order and safety in that sector which is so critical to livelihoods.”
Essential services will continue operating as before within designated times and parameters.
President Mnangagwa said the security forces will continue enforcing lockdown adherence.
He said, further to the lockdown measures, government would enhance screening , testing and contact tracing across the country while sprucing up health facilities to cater for Covid-19 patients.
He said recruitment of additional health personnel would be scaled up while training and re-training of the same for Covid-19 case management would be done.
“From the beginning we have always known that a national lockdown cannot be the solution, rather it merely buys time for us to slow down transmissions while we take other measures and prepare on many fronts to cope and deal with the pandemic,” he said.
“Once cases begin to grow exponentially, the strain on our health facilities will be huge, we should thus do our best now to ensure the pandemic remains at low and manageable numbers.
“We should treat the current small numbers of infections as a window of opportunity to tighten our collective national defences while providing for the worst case scenario of a fully blown health crisis.”
“Experts tell me that an ideal situation is devoting one contact tracer to every four infected cases. Tracing and isolation limits the multiplier effect of the pandemic, it also allows early treatment which lightens the burden on our facilities of care,” the President said.
“More of our health institutions are being re-purposed to handle the pandemic, the goal is to increase the number of beds for Covid-19 cases in anticipation of increased infections. We have to have on standby more and more well stocked facilities which are competent enough to deal with any upsurge in infections, we also require more health personnel.”
New Ziana