The Sunday News
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
THE Victoria Falls Municipality has started disinfecting public areas in the resort town and on Friday partnered with the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) on a similar exercise in the Rainforest to mitigate the spread of coronavirus.
The local authority last week disinfected vegetable markets to allow vendors to return to their stalls.
Housing and Health Services director Mr Brian Nyamande said the exercise would be intensified this week to cover more areas in the resort town.
“As a local authority in partnership with the Covid-19 Taskforce, we procured hydrogen peroxide which is a disinfectant that we are using to disinfect all public areas in town. We have been targeting bus termini, shopping malls and business centres, offices and verandas.
“We were then approached by Zimparks who requested that we extend the exercise to their area of jurisdiction hence the exercise that was done. We are intending to continue with the exercise on a larger scale as we are bringing a water cannon this week,” said Mr Nyamande, who is also chairperson of the Victoria Falls Covid-19 Taskforce.
Zimparks Hwange cluster area manager Mr Samson Chibaya led the organisation in disinfecting the Rainforest.
The Victoria Falls National Park, which houses the majestic Falls, Rainforest and David Livingstone statue, is however, closed to tourists.
Meanwhile, Mosi-oa-Tunya High School in the resort town has been turned into an isolation centre for deportees from Botswana as part of measures to curb the spread of Covid-19. The centre has received eight Zimbabweans who are quarantined at the facility. The five women and three men who are from Victoria Falls, Hwange, Binga and Kadoma have been housed in two separate classrooms after being screened at Kazungula Border. More are expected from Botswana, Zambia and Namibia.
Minister of State for Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Cde Richard Moyo who chairs the Provincial Taskforce committee said the province identified the school as the perfect facility to accommodate deportees.
“So far there are eight people who have been deported and we have identified Mosi-oa-Tunya High School in Victoria Falls to be the quarantine centre for people deported from Botswana and Zambia,” he said.
Cde Moyo said the Department of Social Welfare was responsible for the deportees’ welfare. Matabeleland North Provincial Social Welfare officer Mr Macnon Chirinzepi said 200 beds had been mobilised but the school will accommodate 100 people so as to maintain social distancing.
“As a department will be catering for their welfare with the help of other stakeholders including the private sector, while police and Zimbabwe National Army will provide security. We have managed to mobilise most of the basics they will need such as food, toiletries, blankets and some clothes that will be distributed in due course,” he said.
Sunday News visited the school on Friday and observed that the classrooms had been prepared with bedding. Some of the deportees had a few bags while some said they left their belongings in the neighbouring country.
The Victoria Falls Municipality in conjunction with the local Taskforce has also converted Mkhosana Clinic and Zimbabwe Aids Project (Zap) Clinic into isolation centres to cater for Covid-19 cases. – @ncubeleon
