BREAKING: Mnangagwa announces 21-day Zimbabwe coronavirus lockdown, Deploys ARMY

COVID-19 LATEST: Zimbabwe’s military is back in the streets for the next three weeks after President Emmerson Mnangagwa announced a  mandatory 21-day national lockdown in a bid to slow the outbreak of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

Mnangagwa announced that he will be deploying the security forces to enforce the 21-day the national lockdown on Friday night.  The national lockdown will start from Monday 30 March 2020.

Below are some of the highlights from the President’s address about the 21-day national lockdown:

• Only food markets to remain open, others to close
• All public transport, except Zupco, is suspended. Social distancing is recommended in Zupco
• Motorists seeking to refuel will not be allowed to leave their vehicle
• Informal markets to be closed
• Formal shops to open for 4 hours daily
• Exemptions for sanitary wear, bottled water, bread, sugar, maize meal, pharmaceutical businesses
• Millers have been DIRECTED by Command Centre to IMMEDIATELY STOP supplying maize-meal in CBD FORTHWITH. All deliveries to be made to RESIDENTIAL areas only.
• Mass transport operations suspended, except for employees in essential services
• Employers and staff to negotiate salary cuts for duration of lockdown
• National command element of security deployed to complement civilian efforts
• Funerals exempted but numbers should be less than 50
• Only food stalls will be allowed to operate, none food stalls will be closed
• Ministry  Of Health and Child Care will work with Ministry of Information during this period to update the nation
• A toll free hotline, 2019, has been set up
• Govt is decentralising COVID19 testing services
• The government will come down heavily on those unscrupulous businesses who seek to profiteer out of the situation.
• Legal instruments being put in place to deal with and punish those who case alarm and despondency on social media
• Business encouraged to support employees
• Act responsibly and take hygiene seriously