Zimbabwe tightened its lockdown restrictions on June 29, 2021, amid resurgent COVID-19 infections across the country.
That same day, 1249 COVID-19 infections were reported, the highest number of cases since January 5, 2021, when 1365 cases were recorded.
In the week ended June 29, infections almost trebled to 6338, compared to 2236 the previous week, while the latest week’s 76 deaths were a 43% jump from the previous one.
In response, the government has imposed the following restrictions, which will be reviewed after two weeks:
- Business hours reduced to between 0800hrs and 1500hrs
- Curfew between 1830hrs and 0600hrs
- Inter-city travel banned, except for the production and distribution of food and medicines.
- Travelers from countries with Alpha and Delta COVID-19 variants to be quarantined for 10 days, during which they will undergo four COVID-19 tests, all at their own expense.
Countries where Alpha and Delta COVID-19 variants dominate:
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has assigned names to the various strains of the coronavirus causing COVID-19, which are driving infections across the globe.
Alpha is the name assigned to the variant which was first identified in the United Kingdom, while Delta refers to the strain first picked up in India. Beta refers to the variant first identified in South Africa, while Gamma refers to the variant originally detected in Brazil.
The WHO COVID-19 weekly epidemiological report up to June 29 shows that Delta is now present in 96 countries, while the Alpha variant is in 172 countries. Beta and Gamma have been confirmed in 120 and 72 countries, respectively.
According to the WHO, the Delta variant is more transmissible than all the other major strains and is expected to rapidly outcompete and overtake the other strains, to become the dominant variant globally.
Zimbabwe has confirmed the presence of the Delta variant in the country. The variant has become dominant in neighbouring South Africa, the source of a lot of traffic into Zimbabwe, where the Alpha variant has also been confirmed.
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