Chronicle Editor
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
MORE than 8 000 Zimbabweans among them cross border traders, students and professionals have so far returned from Eswatini, Lesotho, and South Africa since March when lockdown came into effect.
The Zimbabweans arrived by road through Beitbridge Border Post.
Among those who returned are 1 000 people who were deported from South Africa for violating immigration laws and others who had finished serving jail terms for different offences.
According to Beitbridge Covid-19 Task Force chairperson, Mrs Skhangezile Mafu-Moyo the returnees were transported by the Government to quarantine and isolation centres close to their homes.
“We handled a total of 7 754 Zimbabweans who came through Beitbridge who were in transit to other quarantine centres in the country.
“At Beitbridge, we can only carry 150 people at a time mostly those that are from Matabeleland South Province. At the moment we have 51 people in quarantine and 36 others who are isolated at the NSSA hotel,” said Mrs Mafu-Moyo.
The taskforce chairperson said 612 more had been quarantined in Beitbridge.
She said they had also completed upgrading an isolation centre at Beitbridge District Hospital to accommodate 30 people from within the district.
The official said the place is yet to be equipped with more medical equipment to cater for critical patients.
Mrs Mafu-Moyo said they have had no admissions as yet, as most of those testing positive were asymptomatic.
“In terms of water and sanitation, we are getting more support from stakeholders among them Christian Care (a nongovernmental organisation), which is helping our local authorities to rehabilitate boreholes and constructing public toilets.
“This will boost our capacity to handle the pandemic. We are also continuing with awareness campaigns on the ground to ensure that we don’t lose the gains of contain covid-19,” she said.
Recently, Zimbabwe’s Ambassador to South Africa, Mr David Hamadziripi said as of May 6, 2 680 Zimbabweans had registered for repatriation while 4 172 had indicated they were in need of food.
The Zimbabwe Community in South Africa also announced that it had more than 1 400 people on its database in need of food aid. @tupeyo
Online Reporter