Mn an gag ware as signs Health secretary

PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday appointed Agnes Mahomva as the chief co-ordinator of the National Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in his office. Prior to the appointment, Mahomva was the permanent secretary in the Health ministry.

In a statement yesterday, Cabinet chief secretary Misheck Sibanda said the post was created after due consideration of the work of the ad-hoc inter-ministerial taskforce on COVID-19 which has indicated the need for evidence-based approach and co-ordinated division of labour between or among government agencies and other significant entities.

“Mahomva’s leadership is critical in coordinating the country’s expertise in medical, epidemiological and related research and practices, and in intensifying activities in the area of public health threat,” Sibanda said in a statement.

He said an announcement of a new permanent secretary would be made in due course.

Meanwhile, Cabinet yesterday resolved that all returning residents who not wanted to be kept in the country’s isolation centres across the country and wished to pay for their accommodation and upkeep could do so as long as the place they chose would be secure and open to inspection by health and security officials.

Addressing a post-Cabinet media briefing, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said health and security officials will remain seized with the duty to screen returning residents at all ports of entry to curb the spread of the virus.

About 3 611 Zimbabweans have returned home after various countries imposed lockdowns. There have been concerns over the country’s isolation centres, with returnees from UK and Botswana, raising complaints over the squalid conditions in the quarantine centres.