Zimbabwe lockdown Extension: Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting services Nick Mangwana has announced that the President of Zimbabwe ED Mnangagwa will speak to the nation tomorrow about the lockdown extension or lockdown ending, or the form and shape of the new lockdown that will succeed the current lockdown ending on Monday.
Zimbabweans have come up with their own scenarios about the likely outcome of the announcement by President Mnangagwa.
Here are the possible scenarios ranked according to the likelihood of happening
Adjusted lockdown
The best case scenarios that Zimbabweans are asking from from the President is an adjusted lockdown with the following changes:
Motorist who go to work to be allowed to move from one point to another without carrying a passenger.
Industries to be added to essential services: Insurance, banking, manufacturing industries to be allowed to operate. Workers to work on shifts that include the night to enforce social distancing at work places.
Vendors and small business: Vendors and informal businesses to be allowed to operate under the monitoring of the security forces to enforce social distancing
Kombis: Citizens expect kombis to be banned and only Zupco buses will be operating as they are able to enforce social distancing. Kombis can be allowed to operate only if they can carry half their capacity, with two people sitting on one seat.
CBDs: Citizens expect the CBDs to be closed for business and companies to be allowed only to use out of town branches
Extending the lockdown
Another scenario is to have the lockdown extended outright as cases in Zimbabwe are increasing. Zimbabwe currently has 24 cases of Covid-19. Zimbabwe has experienced a spike in local transmission covid-19 cases in the last 3 days.
Ending the lockdown period
The worst case scenario will be to end the lockdown period and go back to business as usual. This scenario is most likely to lead to a spike in covid-19 cases and it is very unlikely that it will be implemented. Other countries such as South Africa extended their lockdown period with two weeks.
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