Chances are now high that Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa could add up more days to the current 21 after he expressed worries that the number of Zimbabweans who have been infected with the catastrophic Covid-19 (coronavirus) pandemic has been on an upward trend.
During the time of publishing, the official figure of Covid-19 positive cases was pegged at 23 although unconfirmed reports indicated that the latest case number 24 was that of a 4-year-old who tested positive in Harare Thursday.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care could not immediately issue an update authenticating the claims.
Zimbabwe, which already has three mortalities, is on the brink of ending the three-week national lockdown this Sunday.
Although Mnangagwa has hinted that he will this week engage his two vice-presidents for a review meeting to decide on the lockdown extension or non-extension matter, it is now highly likely that Harare will extend more days to the mandatory lockdown.
This comes after the septuagenarian indicated that the surging figures in coronavirus cases leaves him a worried man. He says the pandemic is ‘now more serious’ than it was when the national lockdown came into effect.
“It (Covid-19) has just begun to attack Zimbabwe and the spike is beginning to show an upward trend in our country. Yes, we introduced a lockdown some two weeks ago but we are realising now that the pandemic is now more serious than at the time we introduced the lockdown,” Mnangagwa said.
A couple of days ago, Mnangagwa warned peddlers of fake Covid-19-related information that he had set the Central Intelligence Organisation, Zimbabwe’s spy agency, to investigate the origins of such falsehoods. This was after social media reports insinuated that the 77-year-old had announced an extension of days to the current national lockdown.
Zwnews
