President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Sunday extended Zimbabwe’s coronavirus lockdown by a further two weeks amid rising cases of the virus in the southern African country.
In a televised broadcast, Mnangagwa said the decision to extend the lockdown was necessitated by the rising cases of coronavirus and was influenced by the precedence set by neighbouring countries during the past few weeks.
“This was a painful but unavoidable decision that government has had to take after carefully taking into account the situation,” Mnangagwa said.
Zimbabwe has been on a three-week lockdown that began on 30 April and was expected to end on Sunday.
The country has so far registered 25 cases of the disease, with three deaths.
Mnangagwa said it was worrying that some of the new cases involved local transmissions.
The extension came as neighbouring South Africa, which has recorded more than 3,000 cases, has also extended its own lockdown by two weeks while Botswana is contemplating extending its 30-day state of emergency to six months.
JN/APA