(Last Updated on January 14, 2021 by GERALD NCUBE)
HARARE – Government will soon deploy healthcare workers to join security services at roadblocks to intensify the screening process at checkpoints and run awareness campaigns.
These health workers will be mandated to recommend further screening and testing to those who may exhibit symptoms and also advise the security services to prevent those who might be showing signs of being infected by the virus from passing through.
Addressing the media yesterday, Vice-chairman of the Ad-Hoc Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19, Professor Amon Murwira said the government had resolved that law enforcement should be accompanied with awareness, adding that the screening was to complement the efforts because letters do not show whether someone has the virus or not.
“We have agreed that law enforcement should be combined with awareness and also screening. There will be some points where we will actually send doctors to screen people in a car to find out if people are clean and clear in terms of the disease, not only papers.
“The papers do not tell whether you have Covid-19 or not so we are increasing and tightening up the functions of our roadblocks. This is all in the spirit of protecting Zimbabweans,” said Prof Murwira.
Commenting on the same issue, Acting Minister of information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Dr Jenfran Muswere said the government was intensifying the awareness campaigns so that the nation can be educated on Covid-19.
“Covid-19 education and awareness initiatives are currently underway and the task force recommended sustained efforts in engaging key stakeholders such as traditional, political and religious leaders around the country to ensure that Covid-19 message is cascaded down to the grassroots,” said Minister Muswere.
He further lamented that people were not adhering to set regulations as shown by the number of people being arrested for simply not wearing a mask.
“What is worrying is that within a week, 9 993 people were arrested for not wearing masks and this points to negligence by some members of the society who are not taking the virus seriously and this calls for behaviour change, ” he added.
Zimbabwe is currently battling with the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen the country’s cases shoot up to 24256 and 589 deaths recorded.
The Government announced the reintroduction of level 4 lockdown in a bid to curb the spread of the virus.