MAJORITY of people who spoke to HealthTimes have indicated that going into another lockdown would worsen an already fragile socio-economic situation in the country.
By Tanaka Moyo
Their fears come at the back of government’s recent move to institute a localised lockdown in Kwekwe following the detection of a highly virulent and infectious Indian variant B.1.617.2 in the mining town.
Junior George Jonasi an actor popularly known as ‘Tumbwiti’ in a local drama called Tunga, also a film producer and a script writer expressed great concern that the Indian variant might spread throughout the country resulting in a country activating another long lockdown.
If this new variant is to spread all over the country the government will be forced to install a lockdown in the whole country again, and as a film producer it is going to affect my projects that are in pipeline as some of my actors and crew live in the same locations and they have to travel from different cities and this will be impossible for us to shoot as we would not be able to travel to meet.
“This will affect my projects, we are just praying to God to have mercy so that the new variant would not spread all over the country,” he said.
Even though he has been fully vaccinated, he still feels the COVID-19 will affect the economy more.
Mr Elias Moyo an from auditor general’s office encouraged the public to keep observing World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines to prevent the new variant from spreading in the country.
“If the preventative measures and WHO guidelines are not followed the whole country will be affected and will undergo a lockdown and the economic situation will further deteriorate if the preventative measures are not followed properly. People should continue getting vaccination to protect themselves from all kinds of variants to avoid another long lockdown in the entire country,” he said.
Meanwhile, Amminah Dias a marketing manager at Roland’s Panel beating and spray painting is worried as she thinks in no time the new variant will spread in the country and businesses will shut down again and a few essential workers will be working earning an income.
“I am worried the new variant that is hitting India so bad is now in Zimbabwe and we do not know if the person in Kwekwe who was infected with the new variant did not get in contact with another person who then travelled to another city, it just looks like it is going to spread so fast and in a few week’s time, we will receive news that the new variant is all around Zimbabwe and there will be another lockdown in the country.”
