Chronicle Editor
Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
GOVERNMENT has made a passionate call to all citizens to continue religiously adhering to World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribed Covid-19 precautions so as to minimise spread of the coronavirus.
Since December 1, the country has been experiencing a spike in new cases.
As of Saturday, Zimbabwe had recorded 165 002 confirmed cases, including 129 562 recoveries and 4 735 deaths since March last year.
There were 6 181 new cases and six deaths on Friday, a significant rise from 399 new cases on December 1 as daily cases of Covid-19 continue to rise.
Adherence to control measures is key, said Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa.
She was speaking in Victoria Falls on Friday on the sidelines of a Tripartite Negotiating Forum (TNF) retreat.
The TNF, established in 1998 and enacted in 2019, is Zimbabwe’s social dialogue platform bringing together Government, business and labour to negotiate key socio-economic matters affecting all stakeholders.
“The Minister of Health and Child Care, who is Vice President Dr Constantino Chiwenga has been on record encouraging people to adhere and on our last Tuesday Cabinet, we also came out with an emphasis that it’s important to adhere to all the protocols put together by the World Health Organisation because we are not yet out of the woods,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
She implored citizens to correctly wear masks, sanitise or wash hands and continue to observe social distancing.
During the lockdown period, funerals and beer spots have been identified as super spreaders and gatherings that usually characterise the festive season such as parties, weddings and family get-togethers are likely to cause a spike in the new cases.
Minister Mutsvangwa reiterated the call for citizens to get vaccinated.
By Saturday, a total of 3 943 961 people had received their first jab while 2 966 892 had been fully vaccinated against Covid-19.
“We need to take those preventative and precautionary measures otherwise we have this 4th wave which seems to be with us now. We keep saying to the people of Zimbabwe, please it is important to adhere to the health protocols.
Let’s wear our masks all the time, social distancing is very important, we want to continue sanitising our hands and most of all let’s all be vaccinated,” said the Minister.
“The President and WHO have been talking about the importance of being vaccinated as the only way for us to be able to contain the spread of this pandemic.
We want to be seen as a nation which wants to build its economy under very difficult conditions, the only way we can do that is to make sure that we have vaccinated more than 60 percent of our population so that we reach that herd immunity.”
The minister said the country has enough vaccines as President Mnangagwa has gone out of his way to make sure that the country leads in the region in terms of procuring and rolling out vaccination. — @ncubeleon
Online Reporter