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Zimbabwe Extends Lockdown, Dusk-to-Dawn Curfew Amid Surge in COVID19 Cases

Columbus Mavhunga

   HARARE, ZIMBABWE - Public health experts in Zimbabwe say the country's
   extension of a lockdown that includes a 12-hour, dusk-to-dawn curfew to
   thwart a recent swell in COVID19 cases and deaths will not yield much
   without adequate equipping of the country's health care system. The
   coronavirus has infected nearly 33,000 -- and two-thirds of its 1,178
   deaths are from January alone according to official figures. The
   lockdown extension comes as the country says it is struggling to detect
   new highly contagious - and probably more lethal - variants of
   coronavirus.

   Calvin Fambirai, the executive director of the Zimbabwe Association of
   Doctors for Human Rights, said his organization welcomed the two-week
   extension of the lockdown and a 12-hour, dusk-to-dawn curfew by
   President Emmerson Mnangagwa's government.

   "It was going to be illogical to relax the measures, considering the
   background of increased daily mortality and incidence rates of COVID-19
   as compared to the pre-January levels," said Fambirai. "However, we
   think that there is need to complement the lockdown with one, expanding
   testing, case surveillance, and isolation of confirmed cases, secondly,
   there is need for expansion of health sector capacity to respond to
   severe disease of COVID-19 in order to minimize mortality, and thirdly
   there is need for an accelerated approach to nationwide vaccination."

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