COMMENT: To be safe, just stay at home

After the last-minute rush to stock up on food and other essentials on Sunday and yesterday, it is time to stay home from today until the end of this month.

Although Vice-President and Minister of Health and Child Care Constantino Chiwenga announced the Level Four national lockdown on Saturday – some of the restrictions coming into immediate effect – we expect police and other law enforcement agents to be out in full force from today to enforce the regulations.

We observed that thousands of people were in the Bulawayo city centre on Sunday and yesterday buying food, vending with others going about their businesses. People were traveling between provinces as well. Land borders, especially Beitbridge, were congested as travellers sought to beat the midnight deadline after which most would not be allowed to move out of the country. Many businesses were open too.

However, the stay-at-home measures must really kick in today after police yesterday issued a statement indicating the protocol to be observed for essential workers who can move outside their homes during the lockdown.

The new lockdown measures were gazetted on Saturday through Statutory Instrument (SI) 10 of 2021, Public Health (Covid-19 Prevention, Containment and Treatment) (National Lockdown) (No. 2) (Amendment) Order, 2021 (No. 9).

In terms of the SI most commercial and informal sectors will be closed except hospitals, supermarkets, pharmacies among other essential service providers.

Productive sectors such as mining and agriculture will also remain operational during the restrictive period but are expected to implement strict Covid-19 prevention and control measures.

A number of the tightened measures came into effect on Saturday and these include the suspension of church services and weddings. Funerals can only be attended by a few people while bottle stores, bars, gymnasiums and restaurants operations will be suspended until the end of this month.

People not working in sectors providing essential services were directed to stay at home.

Formal and registered informal traders that have not been classified under the essential services category will be closed from today. Other regulations that come into effect today include limiting inter-city and inter-provincial travelling to essential service providers only while the Government closed land borders with effect from midnight.

The borders will only receive returning residents who must have Covid-19 certificates obtained within 48 hours of arriving at the port of entry.

The implementation of an enhanced lockdown was expected. Covid-19 cases started rising towards October into November last year but they really picked up when the festive season started last month. They are still high with more than 750 cases being recorded on Sunday, the highest since the first case was recorded in March last year.

We have bad memories of the first tough lockdown from March into April last year in terms of its adverse impact on people’s livelihoods. Some people will be left with no income until the end of this month. This means limited access to food and so on.

We acknowledge those unintended consequences of the lockdown.

However, in the face of the second wave of Covid-19 and reports that many countries in the world are being affected by a new variant, the Government had no choice but to toughen the lockdown back to the March-April 2020 level.

Our hope is that the action will slow down infections and save lives. We hope too that our people will appreciate that the lockdown is meant to preserve their health and save lives, not to punish them. So they must just stay home. Yes, incomes and livelihoods are likely to be hit, but with your good health and life you have a chance to pick up the pieces after the lockdown.

Those who will be allowed to move out must, without fail, mask up, social distance, wash their hands regularly with soapy water or hand sanitiser. We expect a few to disregard the rules but we have no doubt police and the military would be on hand to enforce full compliance.