The government has put Kwekwe town under a three week lockdown as a COVID-19 containment measure following the recent detection of the deadly Indian variant.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said Kwekwe District will go into a lockdown for three weeks with effective curfew running from 7pm to 6am and all gatherings banned.
“Starting 21 May 2020, all contacts will be tested for COVID-19 (whether they display symptoms or not). On discharge of all those who tested positive to COVID-19 virus and have completed 10 days, they will be mandated to be tested again with PCR before they are finally discharged,” read the statement.
The statement emphasized business hours to run from 8am to 5 pm and all bars, bottle stores and drinking places closed.
“All funerals must be supervised by health workers and should not gather more than 30 people. ZUPCO buses to be engaged so that they avoid overloading but must maintain social distancing all the time,”
The district has activated all its quarantine, isolation and treatment centers with immediate effect and these include Bell Medical Centre in Redcliff, Kwekwe General Hospital and Kwekwe City Isolation Disease Hospital.
“All health workers who are involved in contact tracing, active case finding, treatment, Lab tests and communication must be tested for COVID-19. Kwekwe General Hospital is to avail manpower (doctors and nurses) to help with sample collection,” reads the government statement.
Zimbabwe Republic Police is going to take charge in effecting the lockdown.
This lockdown comes after the Vice President who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care Constantino Chiwenga announced that the Indian variant B.1.617 is now in Zimbabwe.
