President Emmerson Mnangagwa has announced a dusk to dawn curfew starting on Wednesday as Zimbabwe’s coronavirus case tally breached the 1,700 mark.
In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, Mnangagwa said the curfew is part of a raft of measures aimed at containing the spread of the coronavirus, which has so far claimed 26 lives out of the 1,713 cases recorded in the country.
“As of tomorrow Wednesday 22 July 2020, all our security services must enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew set to come into force daily between 1800HRS (1600 GMT) and 0600HRS (0400 GMT),” Mnangagwa said.
Only essential services are exempt from the curfew, he said.
All businesses would be expected to operate from 8am to 3pm during the period when the curfew would be in force, with the exception of providers of essential services.
“All non-working sections of our population will be required to stay at home; except for purposes of securing food, water and health services,” Mnangagwa said.
Food markets would remain open and operational, while all public gatherings for social, religious or political purposes would remain banned.
Critics, however, say the new measures have nothing to do with the rising COVID-19 cases but are part of a ploy to stop anti-government protests scheduled for 31 July.
JN/APA