HARARE, Zimbabwe
In Zimbabwe, if one infects another with coronavirus, it is considered a criminal offense, President Emmerson Munangagwa has announced in the new anti-COVID-19 measures.
The southern African country said
it had imposed a curfew from 6 pm to 6 am for all but essential services and a
retreat to 8 am to 3 pm working hours for exempted businesses.
These new directives are tagged
along with the criminalization of deliberate or reckless transmission of
Covid-19.
“These measures are being taken
for our collective safety. As Zimbabweans, we have to win the war against the
Covid-19 pandemic. We must minimize the loss of lives. I, as your President,
will come back to you to announce the easing of these public health measures,
once the situation has improved. Let all of us, for now, unreservedly comply
with these measures,” he said.
Curfew and other changes were the
results of the rapid increase in the number of total infections, especially
those within Zimbabwean communities, seen recently with local cases now greater
than those among returning residents.
Public gatherings for social,
religious, or political purposes remain banned. Funeral gatherings remain
curtailed, in line with public health requirements.
The President warned against
desertion from places of quarantine by returnees and infected persons,
resulting in the exposure of innocent lives to the virus saying will be
considered a criminal act and invite a very robust response from law and public
health-enforcement arms.
The stringent rules also consider
that anyone who knowingly exposes, aids, abets, or infects innocent persons,
whether by breaching conditions of isolation or by encouraging actions that
undermine public health measures which Government has announced or undertaken,
will be liable, and severely punished accordingly.
Meanwhile, food markets will
remain open and operational and must observe set measures, rules, and
requirements meant to uphold public health. Supplies to markets should be
facilitated to reach the markets, including by security forces.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Chinese government delivered a donation of epidemic prevention materials to Zimbabwe to respond to the increasingly severe epidemic situation in the country.
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