A SENIOR medical officer at the Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo has warned that the coming winter season will see cases of the coronavirus shooting up in Zimbabwe, adding that the best option was to lift the lockdown for a week to allow people to stock up their food reserves, then extend the lockdown to August.

Speaking to NewsDay yesterday, Mpilo Central Hospital clinical director Solwayo Ngwenya said: “With the winter season of flu upon us, we face a quagmire.

“With the respite coming in August, options include continuing with the lockdown until August, but great pain and suffering to the population or partially lifting it with certain restrictions remaining in place but risk high damage.”

Ngwenya added that households were suffering from food shortages, and raised concern over the rising infections in the city which he blamed on failure to observe social distancing.

“People are partially complaining, adding that they still gather in crowded places jostling for mealie-meal and other basic commodities,” he said.

Ngwenya also said there would be a small risk of infections going up if the lockdown is lifted for a week to allow people to restock, but added that this would alleviate people’s suffering.

The medical expert warned that a complete removal of the lockdown would result in high death rates.

Prevent the spread of coronavirus
Government is yet to announce the way forward on the lockdown, which ends on Sunday night.