President Emmerson Mnangagwa has
just announced that Zimbabwe’s total lockdown will be extended by a further 14
days. This came as no surprise given the number of corona virus cases had gone
up from 10 to 25 during the 21-day lockdown which was due to end midnight
tonight.
It would have made no sense to
end the lockdown when the corona virus infection is going up.
There is every reason to
believe that the virus is spreading and therefore the number of confirmed
corona virus cases will increase considerably. If the government keeps its
promise of carrying out 1 000 corona virus tests per day, up from 40 tests or
so per day, especially testing of all those with flu like symptoms and track
and all those tracked after coming in conduct with an infected person; then
number of infected people will double very week.
So, with confirmed 25 corona
virus cases today and we can expect 100 or so cases at the end of this 14-day
lockdown; it will be mad to end the lockdown then. The lockdown will be
extended again and again as the corona virus numbers will continue to increase.
Whilst the lockdown has proven
an effective tool in stopping the spread of corona virus is countries like
Italy it is not such an effective tool in Zimbabwe for the following reasons:
a)
The first step before imposing the lock down is to do everything
possible to stop the virus being brought into the country, quarantine all new
arrivals. Zimbabwe did not have quarantine facilities for all new arrivals even
those suspected of having the virus. All new arrivals were advised to self-isolate
and no effort was made to ensure this was practical and that the advice was
followed. In the case of the late Zororo Makamba, immigration officials tried
to detain him because he had corona virus symptoms. He complained to a senior
government official and the officials were instructed to let him go.
b)
The second line of defence is encouraging personal hygiene
especially when there is any possibility of picking the corona virus from
someone else. People were advised to wash their hands regularly with soap or an
alcohol-based disinfectant. To stay at home, work from home, and exercise
physical distancing, 2 metres, whenever possible. In Zimbabwe most people in
urban cities and towns have no access to regular clean running water and in the
crowded high-density suburbs physical distancing is near impossible. The
situation is even worse for those in the rural areas.
c)
The decision to impose a lockdown; stopping all activities, except
those deemed essential; must be evidence based. There must be evidence the
virus is spreading with suspected epicentres and that a lockdown will stop the
virus spreading beyond the epicentres. The lockdown works in conjunction with
other measures such as testing, tracking, isolating and/or treating. Those in
the frontline, dealing with corona virus cases must wear appropriate protective
equipment. To have imposed a nationwide lockdown on the basis of 10 confirmed
cases premature, to say the least. It was criminal negligence on the part of
the government to be carrying out a misery 40 tests per day and none of the
other follow up measures when it was clear the dreaded corona virus had touched
down in Zimbabwe.
d)
Extending the initial 21-day lockdown by another 14 days and
increasing the number of targeted tests from 40 to 1 000 per day will go a long
way in moving decision making from the present a shot in the dark to informed. Still,
it must be restated that improved testing regiment alone will not stop the
virus spreading. Government must ensure there is supply of clean running water,
there are facilities to effectively isolate those with the virus, etc. And,
most important of all, government must provide food and shelter for the
millions forced into abject poverty or it will be near impossible to enforce and
sustain the lockdown.
So, the first 21-day lockdown
has failed to slow down the spread of corona virus, the number of confirmed
cases has gone up from 10 to 25 in the three weeks. Government failed to take
the necessary measure to stop the corona virus getting into the country and
then spread.
This newly announced 14-day
lockdown extension will not stop the virus spreading either because there is
not even one concrete measure government has adopted to stop the virus
spreading. Not even one!
The lockdown has forced
millions into abject poverty and government has not honoured its repeated promise
to provide them with food and shelter. They face the rock or deep blue sea
choice of adhering to the lockdown demands and die of hunger. Or to ignore the lockdown
and risk dying of corona virus.
There are reports of people in
SA queuing for 14 hours for food packages from government. When the food failed
to materialise they rioted and looted shops. The Mnangagwa government must know
it too cannot extend the lockdown without risking social unrest.
If this Zanu PF regime was to
finally bite the bullet are put an end to the wholesale looting of the nation’s
diamonds and other resources, Zimbabwe will certainly raise significant amounts
of money to ease the financial hardships throughout these hard times.
What is more, by finally
stamping out the curse of corruption; IMF, WB and other institutions will stop
viewing Zimbabwe as a wasteful pariah state and treat it as a democratic nation
worthy of their trust and assistance.
So, what is the way out of this
hell? Well there no denying that corona virus is spreading like a wildfire and
having this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime will only make a desperate
situation even worse. Zanu PF’s failure to implement even the common-sense
measures, such as the failure to enforce the quarantine measures at the
outbreak of the corona virus, failure to test, etc. is criminal negligence. The
way forward for Zimbabwe is therefore obvious; the country needs a competent
and accountable government. Now!
The lockdown has not down anything to slow the spread of corona virus and extending it by another 14 days will not change that reality.
ReplyDeleteIf the government increase the daily tests to 1000 as promised then the number of confirmed cases will double from the present 25 to 50. In another week, the number will double again to 100. It will be foolish to end the lockdown and yet given the government is forcing the poverty to starve it will be socially and politically unsustainable to keep extending the lockdown!
After 40 years of gross mismanagement, rampant corruption and tyrannical oppression by this Zanu PF regime and still Zimbabweans trust the regime to rule even in these challenging corona virus days! How naive and gullible can one be! Still there is a heavy price, much more than the price they have paid these last 40 years, to pay for naivety - hundreds of thousands of human lives.
ReplyDeleteMnangagwa is a corrupt, incompetent vote rigging and murderous thug. How anyone could entrust such a thug with the destiny of a nation through these trial times of corona virus beggars belief!
The returnees are trapped in South Africa where most of them were economic refugees, and feel the heat of the lockdown that was put on that country to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus.
ReplyDelete“At local level we have nothing. We have no resources to talk about. There is no water at the facility and it is being connected.
” The area will not be able to hold the anticipated numbers and we are speaking to lodges and other hotels to be able to host some of the returnees,” a statement reads
The tragedy here is that most of us, who left the country or stayed, have done very little these last 20 years or so since the exodus started to address the underlying cause of the exodus – the problem of bad governance. Zimbabwe should be one of the wealthiest nation in Africa and yet 40 years of Zanu PF misrule has reduced the country into one of the poorest nation in the continent. Every Zimbabwean out there should hang his/her head in shame!
First and foremost, of course, is the financing we’re providing to countries to be able to pursue the supportive policies that I highlighted earlier; have more resources to spend in health, have more resources to provide social protection to populations. And I’m happy to say that in the next 6-8 weeks, we will be — for the 32 countries that have already made requests and we are processing those requests — we will be providing of the order of about $11.5 billion for those 32 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa that are in the process of — the discussions are well underway.
ReplyDeleteIt is important to remind ourselves that countries like Rwanda that have used aid wisely have received even more aid and have made very significant progress in improving the lives of their people. Those countries that have failed to use the aid wisely have received less aid. A country like Zimbabwe known for being corrupt and wasteful of its own resources and aid have received very little aid, if at all.
If we are serious about developing Zimbabwe then we must address such basic problems as ending corruption. We must do it ourselves and not to look up to others to do this for us!
An Air Zimbabwe special charter flight from China with approximately 30 tonnes consignment of Covid-19 combat supplies has landed at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare.
ReplyDeleteThe consignment is believed to include personal protective equipment (PPEs), Covid-19 test kits, gloves, ventilators and other equipment needed to treat Covid-19 patients.
Considering how contagious covid-19 is, one person can infected two others a day and by the end of just one week 2 187 people have the virus. It beggars belief why Zimbabwe had only tested 500 or so a month since its first case and when the country had 25 confirmed cases already.
Mnangagwa had US$4.5 million to bankroll POLAD’s anti-sanction lobbying activities but did not have the money to but covid-19 test kits! How infuriating!
@ Mechavio
ReplyDelete“There goes barking Wilbert again!”
Zimbabwe economy is in total meltdown and millions of Zimbabweans now live in abject poverty. Corona virus is going to make a tragic situation even worse.
There is no doubt that the corona virus is already causing humanitarian and economic havoc of Biblical proportion the world over. Countries with well-resourced health care service, strong economies and competent governments have, nonetheless, been hit hard by the virus. Of course, those countries, Zimbabwe top on that list; whose health care services collapsed a long time ago, whose economy is in meltdown and, worst of all, governed by buffoons; will be hit very, very hard.
The buffoons and their apologists have closed their eyes to the economic and humanitarian tragic reality that has been happening in Zimbabwe all these years. They have never cared about the rights of others, even the right to life, and it is naïve to expect them to change now, not even the avoidable deaths of hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans will move them.
You and your fellow Zanu PF buffoons can afford to dismiss all those talking about the catastrophic events unfolding before us, those on the coal face of these events do not have that luxury!
Took me time to read all the comments, but I really enjoyed the article. It proved to be Very helpful to me and I am sure to all the commenters here! It’s always nice when you can not only be informed, but also entertained! N95 mask China
ReplyDelete