The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
PRESIDENT Mnangagwa has extended the enhanced level four national lockdown by a further two weeks, with the government aiming to vaccinate one million citizens during this period.
This comes amid revelations that 80 percent of all new infections being recorded in the country in the past two weeks are of the deadly Delta Variant that was first experienced in India.
Giving an update of the enhanced level four lockdown this afternoon (Tuesday), President Mnangagwa expressed concern on the continued non adherence to lockdown and prevention measures which he said was resulting in the unprecedented rise in cases and deaths.
“We will be extending the current level four lockdown by another two weeks, this will make it possible for the immediate acceleration of the vaccination programme throughout the country. The programme will now be taken to communities, making vaccination easily accessible to those seeking this essential service.
“The additional two million vaccines received by the country last week are enough to vaccinate two million people with each receiving the recommended two doses. The plan is to immediately vaccinate this targeted one million during this extended two week period,” said President Mnangagwa.
He said strengthened enforcement measures will also play a very critical role, with all lockdown measures set to be strengthened and stringently enforced.
“Areas of focus will include enforcement of proper wearing of face masks, sanitizing and social distancing, decongestion of all workplaces, controlling number of customers in supermarkets, strict enforcement of the ban of intercity travel and immediate introduction and implementation of deterrent fines and withdrawal of licenses of offenders,” said the President.
President Mnangagwa said Zimbabweans had top bear in mind that the pandemic had caused untold devastation throughout the world.
He said despite the country’s vaccination exercise being one of the best in the African continent, the recent surge in new cases and deaths was a reminder that more still needs to be done.
“Government had anticipated that the lockdown measures would assist in reducing the spread in infections and ultimately to halt this surg. Instead, the current data is indicating a worrisome trend, cases and deaths are continuing to increase at an alarming rate.
“The highly transmittable Delta variant is now circulating in our communities. Latest genomic sequencing results received last week indicate that 80 percent of the fresh cases in Zimbabwe are now due to the Delta variant. Lastly, the situation has been made worse by loopholes in enforcing lockdown measures and all other prevention measures,” said the President.
Over the past few weeks the country has recorded a surge in new cases and fatalities due to the pandemic with health experts warning that Zimbabweans should be more wary of the protocols and guidelines for the infections to be contained.
