The ministry of Health and Child Care recently declared Zimbabwe a Covid-19 hotspot with new cases coming from everywhere.
This has seen the Ministry coming up with tough measures to contain the spread of the virus which is getting out of hand with more than 90%of new cases being local.
Non-essential businesses and the informal sector, restaurants, bars and churches have been forced to suspend operations for 30 days.
Gatherings have been restricted to 30 people at funeral.
A 6pm to 6am curfew is in place as the government goes all out to reverse the trend of rising new cases.
Health and Child Care deputy minister John Mangwiro last week urged Zimbabweans to stay at home saying leaving home was a “matter
of life or death” decision and “all of us are now in emergency mode to arrest the pandemic”.
The statistics are frightening. In the first 12 days of the year, Zimbabwe recorded a total of 9,372 new cases and 188 deaths.
This is an average of 781 new cases and 15 deaths per day!
But how did things get out of hand when Zimbabwe had managed to contain the cases during the first wave?
It is due to the fact that people slept on the wheels and in the process throwing away the reins.
The New Year’s eve musical bash in Mbare is just but one example of how citizens had thrown caution to the wind thinking that the war against Covid-19 had been won.
You could see how citizens violated social distancing rules and threw away masks at parties, in churches and social gatherings.
In this new normal, one should not be forced to put on a mask or practice social distancing.
By now, putting on a mask and practising social distancing should have een a favourite pastime since it has been with us for nearly a year.
The business as usual approach which has been in place in the past months should be discarded.
The fact that new cases are coming from everywhere, the majority of them local, should be a cause for concern.
With a health sector already in the intensive care unit, Zimbabweans have no option other than to stay at home as one of the preventive measures.
It is complacency that has seen Zimbabwe mired in these troubles.
The nation cannot afford complacency.
As Jack Nicklaus once said, complacency is a continuous struggle that we all have to fight. Zimbabwe is in a war situation which it has to win at all costs.
Anything short of that will see people falling like flies as Information and Publicity permanent secretary Nick Mangwana tweeted this week.
It’s none but ourselves who can contain the pandemic and all hands should be on deck.
