Harare,(New Ziana) – Public transport operator, the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco) on Wednesday launched a nationwide programme to sanitise its buses and termini as part of its contribution to the fight against the coronavirus.

Since Monday, Zupco is the only public transport operator allowed to ferry workers in critical sectors that have been exempted from the nationwide
21-day Covid-19 lockdown declared by the government.

Private bus operators have been banned from operating during the period.

Zimbabwe has to date recorded eight confirmed cases of the COVID-19
and one death since its outbreak in China last December.

Globally, the pandemic has killed over 42 000 people, and infected nearly
one million others.

Disinfecting public places is one measure most governments have taken
to eliminate the virus.

Acting Zupco chief executive, Evaristo Madangwa said disinfecting the
buses and termini would be carried out for the duration of the
lockdown.

“This exercise is going to be a countrywide exercise, the whole idea
is to make sure that before our customers get into our buses, the areas that we use for boarding are disinfected,” he said.

“We disinfect our buses every morning when they come in to carry passengers and when they come back for re-fuelling. It would be pointless to disinfect the buses only. It’s an effort to make sure that we fight this COVID-19 together.”

He said the bus company had adequate quantities of hydrogen peroxide, the chemical that is being used for the disinfection exercise, to cover the 21-day period.

And to encourage the recommended social distancing, Zupco is also limiting the numbers of passengers its buses were carrying to one per seat.
New Ziana