By Rungano Dzikira

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has extended the initial 21 day national lockdown, with yet another 14 days as Government sought a delicate balance of saving lives before safeguarding livelihoods in the wake of the novel corona virus.

The lockdown extension comes on the back of increased repatriation of locals from abroad, a spike in imported corona cases and reports from the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, UNECA, that Africa could see anything between 300 000 and 3,3 million deaths due to the pandemic

In his Address this Sunday, President Mnangagwa said there was need for the nation to take precautionary measures and work together if we are to keep the Covid-19 pandemic at bay.

“Worldwide cases of infections continue to gallop with the World Health Organisation (WHO) counseling against relaxing lockdowns currently adopted by almost all countries of the world.

“Guided by these realities, and to allow ourselves greater leeway to prepare for worse times which are likely ahead, Government has decide to extend with immediate effect the National Lockdown by a further fourteen days, that means the National Lockdown which would have expired at midnight stands extended by another two weeks up to 3 May, 2020,” he said.

The extension, as the president explained, seeks to allow Government to buy more time to strategize for a feared worst case scenario, which research has signposted to. President Mnangagwa further illustrated that the extension on the lockdown was meant to save lives as Government was yet to meet conditions recommended for lifting the restriction.

“The country is yet to meet conditions for lifting the lockdown that was recently announced by WHO. Key among these conditions is the need to have in place health systems that are capable to test, isolate, treat and trace every contact,” he said.

Government is thus in the process of mobilising resources to ensure that these conditions are met.

Also, in order to stay ahead of the problem, the President said that Government had moved beyond diagnosing cases which presented themselves for investigation, instead choosing mandatory testing for the whole country, as this remedial and reactive response came short of the goal of staying ahead of the virus.

This proactive approach would then allow the Government to gauge the magnitude of the problem at hand, while promptly isolating cases early enough from the onset of the virus in order to be able to hastily deal with the pandemic.

He also acknowledged the need to preserve livelihoods through keeping the economy running by scaling up production in the mining and manufacturing sectors (formal and informal sectors). Essential services such as security, banks, and supermarkets would also continue operating within the guided health safety parameters.

So far, more than 2, 3 million people have been infected with Covid-19, with at least 160 000 having succumbed to the disease, with the African continent so far reporting more than 18 000 cases and 348 deaths.