“We have
gradually lifted lockdown restrictions in some sectors such as mining and the
marketing of tobacco. Noticing that there is now a gradual increase of
infections, the lockdown will continue for the next 14 days, however, relaxed
to Level 2,” said President Mnangagwa.
What is clear
here is the lockdown is being applied at random! There was no rational reason
for imposing a total lockdown on 30 March and now the lockdown is being eased
for no rational reason either. To stop corona virus from getting in the country
and, once in, the steps required to stop it spreading must be based on accurate
information on valid corona virus cases data.
We all know that
corona virus originated in China and the only way to spread it from China to another
country is someone with the virus bringing it into the country! New Zealand is
one of the countries that imposed a strict 14-day self-isolation on all coming
into the country. Those who could not self-isolate for whatever reason were put
in quarantine.
Zimbabwe’s
self-isolation policy of new arrivals was a laissez faire, to say the least. If
the new arrivals have no high temperature and any other corona virus symptoms
they were allowed into the country, mix freely, advised to self-isolate as soon
as practical.
Only those who
showed corona virus symptoms were to be detained, tested and, if positive,
placed in strict self-isolation. This was in theory, in practice even those
with symptoms were allowed to go free. The late Zororo Makamba had the symptoms
and he used his political influence to be allowed to go free.
The only way
to be sure the virus had not sneaked in and was spreading was to make sure as
many people with the corona virus like symptoms were tested, especially those
who had been outside the country or in touch with someone who had. “Test,
trace, isolate and treat!” World Health Organisation (WHO) advised.
When Zimbabwe imposed
the 3-week total lockdown on 30 March 2020 the country had 7 confirmed cases of
covid-19 and one death and had carried out less than 200 tests. How anyone can
ever justify a total lockdown on the population of 15 million on the basis of
such data beggars belief!
The regime
promised to ramp up its testing during the lockdown from 40 test or so a day to
1 000 per day. The country received 50 000 test kits. At the end of the 3-week total
lockdown, the country had 25 confirmed covid-19 cases and had done only 3 308
tests – a far cry from 21 000 tests promised! The regime reduced the lockdown rules
and imposed a 2-week level 3 lockdown.
At the end of
the 2-week level 3 lockdown the number of cases was 40 and with less than 7 000
tests carried out – less than 20% of the expected 35 000 tests.
People have
asked why Zimbabwe has not been testing and all they ever got was the usual stone-silence
from the regime. There is no doubt that this Zanu PF regime’s failure to test
and get accurate data on the virus is putting the whole nation at increased
risk of the corona virus spreading just as China did by being secretive at the
outbreak of the virus.
There is no
doubt the whole world would have been spared the economic devastation and human
misery and deaths corona virus was wrecked on us all if China had not silence
Dr Li Wenliang. WHO has been rightly
criticised for not carrying out a thorough and independent investigation on corona
virus as soon as it was clear China was not being honest, transparent and
truthful about the virus.
It is clear
that this Zimbabwe government is not being honest, transparent and truthful on
how widespread the corona virus is the country. Pretending that some with corona
virus has malaria, for example, is dangerous in that many people are being put
at unnecessary risk.
The people of Zimbabwe cannot rely on this Zanu PF government to give them accurate information on covid-19 cases no more that the world could rely on China at the outbreak of the virus. Just as WHO has duty of care to the nation to stop diseases becoming an epidemic and to the world to stop disease becoming a pandemic; WHO owes the ordinary people of Zimbabwe, not the country's corrupt ruling elite, the truth on how covid-19 is spreading in the country.
.
6 comments:
@ Lloyd Msipa
You are pathetic!
“A country draws its legitimacy through legitimate processes carried out transparently through its institutions. Robert Mugabe had indeed overstayed his welcome as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe. That is not in contention. What is in contention is the methods employed to remove him,” you say.
You are talking about legitimacy and yet you fail to comprehend the reality that Mugabe was indeed illegitimate because the 2013 elections were not free, fair and credible. So you settle for the nonsensical Mugabe “overstayed his welcome”.
"We are very much focused on using the assets that we have in place in Zimbabwe to support the Covid-19 response. We already have a US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) office here with epidemiologists, physicians and health experts … who are working on Covid-19 now, providing training, for example, on how to follow up contacts of someone who has tested positive; laboratory preparedness; treatment options," Nichols said on the embassy's website.
"Five of them are working in the WHO (World Health Organisation) and ministry of Health and Child Care working groups. So, they are there everyday providing their technical expertise to sharpen and improve the Covid-19 response here in Zimbabwe."
We have corona virus sweeping like a veldt fire; we should have done better to stop it, we did not. We are where we are and with the right information and focus we can still save many, many people of unnecessary suffering and save many, many lives. Sadly we have a government that is determined to paint a false picture of the corona virus in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF is not testing as aggressively as it should. We have done less than 7 000 tests when we should have done 30 000 by the regime’s own promise. Many people have died with covid-19 like symptoms and the regime has insisted it is malaria but would not test the patients of covid-19.
We not only have to fight covid-19 but fight this corrupt and incompetent Zanu PF regime just for a chance to fight the virus. What a nightmare.
The tragedy is as long as Zanu PF remains in office we can be absolutely certain that the fight with covid-19 will be even tougher and many people will die unnecessarily! Zanu PF is a mile-stone round the nation’s neck and faced with the existential corona virus threat, the mile-stone is weighing the nation down when it needs to be mobile.
IN A surprising development which will rattle President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his government and the ruling Zanu-PF, Finance minister Mthuli Ncube has openly admitted that his policies have failed and that Zimbabwe is on the brink of implosion.
This has prompted many Zimbabweans who spoke to the Daily News yesterday to say that as welcome as the at-sea Ncube's admission is, he should resign if he has any modicum of integrity left, or be sacked by Mnangagwa — particularly as he has misleadingly been reporting budgetary surpluses and also painting a rosy picture of the economy all along.
Ncube's mortifying admission emerged from a letter that the unpopular political greenhorn wrote to international financial institutions last month, which bares to the world the shocking extent of Zimbabwe's deepening economic rot.
However, the former boss of the failed Barbican Bank has disappointed terribly despite his big reputation — and risks going down in history as Zimbabwe's worst Finance minister ever.
All those Zanu PF upstarts including Mnangagwa himself who are foaming with anger at Mthuli Ncube, they would all be kneeing and kissing Ncube’s hand in reverence if he had got the US$200 million bailout! They all know Zimbabwe is broke and the corona virus has exposed just how corrupt and incompetent the regime is. In short they all know Zimbabwe is imploding and with no bailout the day of reckoning is nigh upon us.
I do not doubt for a minute that the Zanu PF thugs will be baying for Ncube’s blood now that he had publicly admitted something they did not want to admit themselves and failed to get the bailout! They are baying for his head in a silver plater for having raised their hopes of a bailout and dashing them. Besides, this is not the first time that the flamboyant Minister has promised them the mountain and once again perform a molehill!
Firing Mthuli Ncube may make the Zanu PF feel great but that will not last for long, the implosion is not going to spare anyone of them. Zanu PF is finished!
VICE-President Kembo Mohadi says Zimbabwe has to avoid cross border infections at all costs as it is poorly equipped to handle infections.
Mohadi, who chairs the Covid-19 national taskforce, made the remarks on Friday during a tour of the Beitbridge isolation centre, which is expected to receive thousands of Zimbabweans returning from South Africa in the coming days
This is very disappointing, covid-19 is already in Zimbabwe and is spreading rapidly. The regime is refusing to test and establish exactly how the virus is spreading. Three weeks ago, the regime promised to ramp-up tests from 40 or so a day to 1 000 per day. The nation was assured the regime will do 30 000 tests by 1 st May and yet only carried out just over 6 000, 20%!
The regime has not released any corona virus tests details in the last four days, further proof the government does not want to be truthful and transparent on what is going on.
As the government’s chairperson on covid-19 VP Mohadi must know that the regime is not testing and releasing the information on the virus. The regime itself is making decision like easing the lockdown without reliable data. And the nation at large is being put at greater risk as the people will not take any precautions in their dealings with covid-19 cases because they are deliberately being kept in the dark.
The only people who will be using the porous border to get into Zimbabwe are Zimbabwean returnees who would not want to go to the designated isolation centres because they know the living condition there are so unhygienic the centres are now covid-19 hotspots in their own right!
Zanu PF rigged the July 2018 elections, the regime has no mandate to govern and now the nation is stuck with a blundering regime at a time when the nation desperately need a competent government to see the nation through these covid-19 trying months and years ahead.
Many Zimbabweans will suffer and many die unnecessarily because we have a corrupt and incompetent government. This is a political reality Zimbabweans must put in their pipe and smoke. They have to look themselves in the mirror and ask what they have ever done to save themselves, their own children and the nation from the curse of bad governance? For the overwhelming majority out there, the answer will be precious little!
If Zimbabweans do not get off the backside and demand good governance now, then many of them will suffer and many die unnecessarily! Zanu PF is a tyrannical regime and tyrants will never give up power without being pressured to do so! Never!
Now that the IMF, WB and national institutions such as USAID, UK, Canada, etc. have all scaled down their involvement with this Zanu PF regime in protest against the government’s failure to honour its political and economic reform promises the only other international body dealing with the regime is the UN. Zimbabwe has received millions of dollars, aid money, to fight hunger, malaria and covid-19 from the UN. This gives the UN a lot of economic muscle.
Besides, the UN has the duty of care to the people of Zimbabwe to make sure the covid-19 does not become a epidemic in Zimbabwe and hence the millions of dollars aid it has dished out. Surely WHO has the responsibility to make sure the aid is used appropriately and the virus is contained.
It is inconceivable that WHO representatives in Zimbabwe are not aware of Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence in handling covid-19 and the regime’s attempts to hide its failures by deliberately failing to test and releasing accurate data.
China did not want the world to know how many people were infected by corona virus and how many died but they did act to contain the virus. Zanu PF is being secretive on the covid-19 cases and deaths and, to add insult to injury, is doing nothing to contain the virus. The country has received 50 000 tests kits and yet has only done 6 000 as of 30 April 2020 when they should have done 30 000 by the regime’s own undertaking.
There is no doubt that corona virus is spreading far and wide and Zanu PF’s blundering incompetence is making a bad situation even worse. It is right and proper that one should ask why WHO, it has local representatives based in Zimbabwe, has failed to play its supervisory role of ensuring covid-19 was contained in the country?
When the dust has settled, there must be time-off to reflect on the role the UN, more specifically WHO, has played in this covid-19 pandemic. What is the point of having a guard dog that will not bark much less bite when it should!
The government has defended its testing system for coronavirus after it was forced to review downwards the number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the country so far following the retesting of six people from Harare.
On Thursday, the Health and Child Care ministry announced that it had ordered the retesting of six people believed to be nurses and a doctor at a major hospital in the capital following an "unusual clustering" of cases.
The following day the ministry said Zimbabwe's coronavirus positive cases had been revised downwards from 40 to 34 after all those that were retested were found to be negative.
Zimbabwe has only done 6 000 tests as of 30 April 2020 when it should have done 30 000 by its own undertaking. We are not testing enough and the low case numbers is not a true reflection of the reality on the ground! We are being fool by a regime that will not want the true picture to be known but this is just foolish because covid-19 is not so easily fooled!
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