President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday warned that the current variants of the COVID-19 virus were more transmissible, and urged Zimbabweans to heed lockdown regulations which were imposed by the government last week.
The continuous Covid-19 infections have stretched across Zimbabwe, forcing the government to impose a two-week lockdown countrywide after previous localized restrictions on hotspots areas failed to slow down the infections.
Speaking at the burial of the late national hero Major General (Retired) Clever Shadreck Chiramba at the National Heroes Acre in Harare yesterday, President Mnangagwa warned Zimbabweans that the new COVID-19 variants were highly transmissible and much more deadly.
“The third wave of COVID-19 is upon us, with the current variants being highly transmissible. Many lives have been lost within a short space of time. We should, therefore, not gamble with our lives. Our country is now operating under enhanced level four lockdown to curb the infection and death spikes,” Mnangagwa said.
The Zanu Pf first secretary ordered all citizens to exercise Covid-19 preventive measures as outlined by the World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines whilst urging everyone to be vaccinated.
“Let us all work harder to quickly return to normalcy. The country must continue to religiously observe the WHO [World Health Organisation] public health protocols and the preventive measures government has put in place. All those who have not yet received their COVID-19 vaccine doses must do so without hesitation and delay. As Zimbabwe, we cannot afford to let our guard down,” he added.
The late general fell victim to the virus, bringing to five the number of national heroes who have succumbed to COVID-19, that includes the late ambassador to Mozambique, Douglas Nyikayaramba, ministers Perrance Shiri (Agriculture), Sibusiso Moyo (Foreign Affairs), Joel Biggie Matiza (Transport) and Ellen Gwaradzimba (Manicaland Provincial Affairs).
Zimbabwe recorded 1 002 new infections and 18 deaths on Saturday after an all-time daily high of 1 442 cases and 33 deaths on Friday.
Even with limited testing facilities, Zimbabwe has been recording over a thousand cases per day since Tuesday last week.
Meanwhile the country now has 1 859 deaths from 53 665 cases, but is largely unvaccinated, with 810 008 people vaccinated with the first dose, and 567 686 having had two doses.
Last week, government announced that it would deploy the army onto the streets to ensure strict adherence to level four lockdown regulations.
