NEW: Returning citizens to foot own quarantine bill

Online Reporter

ZIMBABWEANS who test positive for Covid-19 on return into the country will be required to fund their own quarantine at designated isolation centres, Cabinet has announced.

Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told Tuesday’s post-Cabinet briefing that: “Furthermore, those travellers found to be positive for Covid-19 will be isolated at an isolation centre at their own expense.”

Government, she said, had refined the standing Covid-19 preventative regulations in order to define persons entering the country under three broad categories.

“The major highlight of the amendment is that it now defines persons entering Zimbabwe into three categories, namely: (a) returning citizens or residents of Zimbabwe; (b) persons referred to in section 8(1)(i) of the Statutory Instrument (SI); and (c) a national or ordinary resident of a SADC country in transit through Zimbabwe to another SADC country.”

As of May 16, 2021, the country recorded 38 560 cases of the coronavirus, with 36 329 recoveries and 1 582 deaths.

The recovery rate stood at 94,2 percent, with 95,6 percent of Covid-19 positive cases being attributed to local transmission.

There are 649 active cases.