First Lady urges citizens to heed Covid-19 lockdown

Harare(New Ziana)-First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa on Monday said unity of purpose is key for the country to win the fight against the coronavirus.

The call for collaboration in the fight against Covid-19 comes as Zimbabwe embarked on a 21- day lockdown meant to curb the further spread of the virus by staying at home.

The First Lady told the media that Covid-19 was everyone’s problem hence the need to put all hands on deck to fight the disease.

“It’s a problem that has come to us all as Zimbabweans. Let’s join hands and work together. It’s a problem that has come to families, to our next door neighbours, to our relatives, so it’s a blanket problem that we need everyone to come on board and make sure that we work together,” she said.

Zimbabwe has so far recorded seven cases of Covid-19, including one fatality.

On the strength of medical advice that infections could spike in the approaching winter if drastic precautionary action was not taken immediately, President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Friday declared a total lockdown of the country for the next three weeks starting on Monday.

The lockdown was the boldest precautionary measure that the government has taken against the raging pandemic which has killed over 20 000 people around the world and stricken hundreds of thousands of others.

Under the lockdown, only medical staff and employees in critical sectors such as energy, retail, food and water will be allowed to go to work.

Before then, the government had only ordered a partial lockdown of its services by permitting a third of its 300 000 workforce to be reporting for work at any given time.

New Ziana