Covid-19: Zim leaving nothing to chance at ports of entry

Harare (New Ziana) -Zimbabwean airports are not leaving anything to chance when it comes to safety of passengers and airline crews from Covid-19, an official said on Monday.

Director of Airports at the Robert Mugabe International Airport, Tawanda Gusha told journalists after a tour by Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa that all travelers and their baggage entering the airport terminal were being disinfected.

“We have got a disinfectant at the terminal entry. Also we are restricting entry to only travellers and staff. We also disinfect luggage as travellers come in and going to the check in-point where we have social distancing instructions.

“We have also installed sanitizing stations throughout the terminal public areas so that at any given time the public does not have to look for sanitizers,” he said.

Gusha said since the resumption of full scale operations of the RGM International Airport on October 1, travellers and airlines had increased by 30 percent.

“From the 1st of October what we have experienced initially was a 30 percent load factor on the airlines that have come back to operate here,” he said.

He added, “So far we have got Emirates Airlines which has come back, Ethiopian Airlines continued on daily flights, Kenyan Airways that’s operating 3 times a week , South African Airlink and Fastjet. The numbers have been very encouraging especially when you look at the Harare -Johannesburg route; Fastjet has been full loads on a daily basis twice daily flights.”

Speaking at the same occasion, Mutsvangwa said authorities were not leaving anything to chance.

“Our airports are fully equipped to make sure that we contain the spread of Covid-19.

“It is our job that we assure our travellers both domestic and international travellers of the measures being taken here at RGM airport to make sure that we contain the spread of the pandemic. This is a serious pandemic, we take it very serious as a country,” she said.

She added: “We take this opportunity to assure the travellers, those Zimbabweans who want to go outside and those who are coming into the country that your health is number one priority as the airport has put in place measures to make sure that we contain this disease.”

Zimbabwe reopened airports on 1 October after a 6 month COVID-19 hiatus.

To date, Covid-19 confirmed cases have topped 8 000 including 230 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

New Ziana