Bulawayo faces full lockdown to covid-19 cases rise

BULAWAYO will go back to either complete lockdown or suburb specific lockdown as officials try to quickly combat the continued increase in the number of Covid-19 cases in the city, Sunday News has learnt.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care in the past six days (until Friday), the city accounted for 72 of the 267 new infections in the country of which 54 were of returning citizens. This has jolted officials who now fear the city needs tighter control to avoid a second wave. Bulawayo is leading with 109 active cases with Harare second with 71 active cases. A total of 66 deaths have been recorded in Bulawayo, coming second to Harare which has accounted for 121 of the 257 deaths countrywide. The total number of Covid-19 cases in the country stood at 8765 as at Friday, with 8090 having recovered giving the country a 92.3 percent recovery rate.

Bulawayo’s provincial Covid-19 taskforce has since written to the council’s health department demanding information on suburbs deemed to be hotspots to determine whether there is a need for a complete lockdown or suburb-based lockdown.

Chair of the taskforce, who is also the Minister of State Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Cde Judith Ncube told Sunday News yesterday that going back to lockdown was the only way to deal with the increase in the numbers of Covid-19 cases in the city.

“We have since instructed the Bulawayo City Council’s health department to give us figures on the hotspot suburbs in the city, after which we will decide whether we do suburb specific lockdowns or lockdown the entire city. What continues to be our worry is that the city’s statistics continue to rise hence the need for us to adopt a concerted effort in addressing this issue,” she said.

state media