WEEKLY NEWS ROUND-UP

Monday

Thirty-two Zimbabweans who arrived in the country from the United Kingdom aboard an Ethiopian Airlines flight were taken to Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and Management (Zipam) for a 21-day-quarantine.

The 32 arrived at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport and were received by officials from the Ministry of Health and Child Care and other authorities.

Tuesday

At least one million households identified through the Department of Social Welfare to benefit from a $600 million kitty availed by Government to mitigate the effects of Covid-19, are set to start receiving the money through electronic transfers. Government resolved to cushion vulnerable households, whose sources of income was affected by the 21-day national lockdown.

The $600 million package, for three months, was announced a fortnight ago by Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube.

Wednesday

Government last week gazetted the legal instrument that allows the importation of essential sundries to fight Covid-19 into the country duty-free.

This follows an administrative decision to allow the materials to be imported duty-free, while a legal framework was being worked on.

The regulations, which are effective March 30, were contained in Statutory Instrument 88 of 2020 that was published in the Extraordinary Government Gazette.

Thursday

Government now has adequate kits to test the targeted 1 000 samples of suspected Covid-19 cases per day following the delivery of missing reagents from the Jack Ma Foundation donation of 20 000 test kits.

The reagents and remaining consignment to fight the virus have since been delivered. Government also received 3 000 rapid test kits, which have since been deployed to provinces.

Friday

The zonal maize meal distribution which was scheduled for some retail outlets in areas such as Mabvuku, Tafara and Epworth in Harare has been postponed due to a number of challenges such as delays in payment by retailers and the expiry of some retail licences among others.

Some operating retail licences allegedly expired on March 31 and have not been renewed due to scaled down operations countrywide as a result of the 21-day coronavirus lockdown.