'Shops To Reopen, Front Line Workers To Undergo Compulsory COVID-19 Testing After May 3'

Zimbabwe will relax lockdown measures on 3 May in a bid to resume economic activities while at the same time it guards against the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

A government official who spoke to The Independent claimed that the issue was discussed at length during a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The official is quoted as saying:

Retailers will be allowed to re-open during the course of the coming week while restaurants and bars, which are considered high-risk areas, will remain closed and can only be allowed to open after a week or so under strict health measures. These were proposals given to the taskforce by Cabinet members during the discussions.

It was also proposed that schools and tertiary institutions will stay closed until satisfactory levels of containment were achieved. It was also resolved that all schools and tertiary institutions have to be thoroughly disinfected before they open and this will certainly take a long time.

Large gatherings of people exceeding 50 will remain banned while other control measures such as social distancing, self-isolation of confirmed cases and quarantine of returning citizens will remain in place. The unnamed official added:

… large gatherings will remain banned and social distancing will be observed while those coming from outside the country will be subjected to the mandatory 21-day quarantine period.

It was also agreed in the meeting that as part of the measures to contain the virus, all security sector and health workers operating on the frontline will be compulsorily tested along with members of their families.

This includes those in the army, the police, the intelligence and municipal police officers in addition to nurses, doctors and everyone working on the Covid-19 frontline.

South Africa and Namibia have already indicated that they will relax their lockdowns, with the former saying it will migrate from Alert Level 5 to Level 4, while the latter will downgrade from STAGE 1 to STAGE 2 on May 5.

More: The Independent