The Zimbabwean government announced a tightening of existing lockdown measures following a spike in the number of new COVID-19 cases.
The government banned all movements and reintroduced exemption letters for persons classified as essential workers.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa made the announcement on Tuesday noting authorities had registered a 107 percent in COVID-19 positive cases over the past week.
She added that funerals had become major spreaders of the virus even as health centres suffered a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) and there was misinformation on vaccines being spread.
“The nation is advised that the exemption mechanisms which were used during the first lockdown in 2020 will be reactivated with immediate effect,” Mutsvangwa told reporters during a weekly COVID-19 briefing.
Mutsvangwa added that the cabinet had directed the Treasury to immediately release ZW368.2 million for “full enforcement” of Level 4 lockdown measures.
Zimbabwe is experiencing is third wave of COVID-19 infections and deaths and has so far reported 57,963 confirmed cases and 1,969 deaths, according to the Ministry of Health.
(Story compiled with assistance from wire reports and Zimbabwe’s Information ministry)
