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Mthabisi Tshuma recently in Plumtree
CLOSE to 1300 Zimbabweans based in Botswana have returned to the country via the Plumtree Border Post since the start of the lockdown.
The returnees who comprise of voluntary and deported Zimbabwean citizens are subject to a mandatory 21-day quarantine in the border town when they enter the country as a measure to mitigate the spread of Covid-19.
On Saturday, Vice President Kembo Mohadi, who is also the Ad-Hoc Inter Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 national chairman, accompanied by the Matabeleland South provincial Taskforce team chairperson, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu and Deputy Minister of Information, Communication Technologies, Postal and Courier Services Dingumuzi Phuthi among other Government officials, toured Plumtree District Hospital, an earmarked isolation centre and Plumtree High School which is a quarantine centre for the returnees.
In an interview on the sidelines of the tour, Mangwe District Social Welfare Officer Mr Sicelo Nyathi said 1291 returnees from Botswana have so far been sheltered in the quarantine centres in Plumtree.
They are being handled by an inter-ministerial team under the district civil protection unit (CPU).
“The total number of people that we have handled so far and are coming from Botswana through the Plumtree Border Post is 1291.
“As of yesterday (Saturday) the last batch we received were 15 people who came in last night,” said Mr Nyathi.
Mr Nyathi said there are more than 400 returnees sheltered at both quarantine centres close to their holding capacity of 500.
“We currently have 287 people at Plumtree High School and 128 at Allen Redfern Primary School from a holding capacity of 350 and 150 respectively.
“Those that have completed their 21-days mandatory quarantine and have been released from here in Plumtree are 167,” he said.
In order to ease crowding at these facilities, some of the returnees were moved to Bulawayo where they are currently housed at Bulawayo Polytechnic and United College of Education (UCE).
Mangwe district medical officer Dr Nyasha Hunda said returnees are tested using PCR only when they are to be released with a mandatory screening testing amid admission at quarantine centres.
“When the deportees are admitted to the isolation centres they undergo the screening testing part which is mandatory.
“Because we have a few kits for PCR, we only test them using the PCR method when they are to be released to ensure that they go out to the community safe from the deadly virus,” said Dr Hunda.
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Online Reporter