HARARE — Moved by the rising positive cases of the dreaded coronavirus, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa today extended the national lockdown against coronavirus by 14 days.
The Southern African nation’s 78-year old leader said his country has not yet been able to meet the benchmarks set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for any country to be considered ripe to emerge from a lockdown.
“Guided by these realities and to allow ourselves greater leeway to prepare for worse times which are lurking ahead, government has decided to extend, with immediate effect, the national lockdown by a further 14 days,” said Mr. Mnangagwa.
He (the Zimbabwean President) said ‘worldwide cases of infections continue to gallop with the world health organization counseling against relaxing lockdowns currently adopted by almost all countries of the world.’
As of Saturday recently, Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 cases had reached 25 positive cases, with three deaths recorded so far nationwide.
Meanwhile, 2,226 tests have been conducted so far in Zimbabwe, with more tests still expected to be carried out.
Despite his government facing criticism for brutalizing civilians amid the lockdown, Mr. Mnangagwa also said his country’s security forces would continue to ensure full adherence to the measures set to be adhered to during the stretched lockdown.
Coronavirus broke out last year in Wuhan, a Chinese city in the country’s Hubei Province before spreading to various countries across the globe.
So far, according to WHO, over 162,000 people have died from COVID-19 globally, while more than two million people have also been infected by the disease which has been confirmed to have spread to at least 185 countries the world over.
Over 604,000 people have recovered from coronavirus worldwide, according to WHO.