President Emmerson Mnangagwa has increased the Coronavirus Lockdown in Zimbabwe by another two weeks.

Explaining his decision to extend the lockdown, Mnangagwa said current infection rates and local transmission point to what he called “a growing threat to our nation”. He said there was a “grim” projection that confirmed cases will rise.

“Once the cases begin to grow exponentially, the strain on our health facilities will be huge. We should thus do our best now to ensure the pandemic levels off at these low, manageable numbers we currently have recorded,” he said.

On contact tracing, Mnangagwa said: “Experts tell me that an ideal situation is devoting one contact tracer to every four infected cases. Tracing and isolation limits the multiplier effect of the pandemic. We have to ginger up our infection surveillance systems for speedy detection and contact tracing. Again, government is addressing this critical area.”

Government, he said was always aware that the lockdown alone was never the solution, and that it had a huge impact on the economy.

“But we chose the route of abundant caution, whatever costs and discomforts this route brings upon our whole society. Nothing is more important than life saving.”

Last week, the WHO said governments must only lift lockdowns when:

• Disease transmission is under control
• Health systems are able to “detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact”
• Hot spot risks have been minimised in vulnerable places, such as nursing homes
• Schools, workplaces and other essential places have established preventive measures
• The risk of importing new cases has been managed
• Communities are fully educated, engaged and empowered to live under a new normal

Mnangagwa conceded that Zimbabwe, like most other countries, is yet to meet these conditions, and hence had to extend the lockdown.

“As I have already indicated, worldwide cases of infections continue to gallop, with the WHO counselling against relaxing lockdowns currently adopted by almost all counties of the world. Guided by these realities, and to allow ourselves greater leeway to prepare for worse times which are likely ahead, Government has decided to extend with immediate effect the national lockdown by a further fourteen days,” he said.

Tobacco auctions, due to start this week, will be decentralised while there will be limits on the numbers of farmers allowed at the auction floors.