Zimbabwe enters into a second lockdown as SA morgues run out of space

People attend a music concert to celebrate the new year in Mbare, Harare, Friday, Jan. 1, 2021. Despite a government ban on music concerts and public gatherings due to a surge in Covid-19 infections and the new and more contagious variants of the disease, thousands of people gathered in one of the country's poorest neighborhoods to celebrate the new year. [AP]

Zimbabwe has entered into a second lockdown on Tuesday to curb the spread of Covid-19.

This is after the country registered a surge in new coronavirus cases after the December holidays.

“Zimbabwe is entering a second lockdown to stop the spread of a Covid-19 second wave,” President Emerson Mnangagwa said in a tweet on Tuesday.

He urged the citizens to avoid large gatherings and non-essential travel to curb the spread of the virus.

“Please, for the sake of your family and loved ones, avoid large gatherings and non-essential travel. This is the final push - let’s defeat this virus for good,” he said.

Zimbabwe is entering a second lockdown to stop the spread of a #COVID19 second wave.

Please, for the sake of your family and loved ones, avoid large gatherings and non-essential travel.

This is the final push - let’s defeat this virus for good ???????? — President of Zimbabwe (@edmnangagwa) January 5, 2021

The restrictions under level four lockdown will be in place for the next 30 days. They include a stay-at-home order except for the movement of essential service providers and those in productive sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing.

Permanent Secretary for Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Mr Nick Mangwana said yesterday that it was necessary to return to more intense measures to contain the spike in infections, state-owned newspaper Herald reports.

“Globally, there was also a new strain in the UK and South Africa as well as new waves of infections in many countries. Our own infection and death rates were rising exponentially and Government took a very proactive decision to contain this before it overwhelmed our health services which are still in recovery mode. The only way to contain these soaring numbers was to take our regime back to Level 4 lockdown,” he said.

Herald reported that police have mounted checkpoints on major roads leading to the capital, Harare.

The country’s death toll stands at 384.

Elsewhere, in South Africa, funeral parlour owners said that they are battling to cope with the high number of burials of Covid-19 victims, public broadcaster SABC reports.

According to morgue owners, at times they are forced to wait at the cemeteries for graves to be dug as bodies pill up.

South Africa has a death toll of 30,011 and over 171,000 active cases as of January 5.