COVID-19: No room for complacency

Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe

DEAR Mr President, We highlight the second phase of the reopening of schools as we note that Monday was the reopening day of nonexamination classes across the country.

We further highlight the surges of crowds in public spaces, particularly in central business districts (CBDs) in the past few days owing to the reopening of schools, with shops supplying educational materials having large-scale numbers of clients and queues which did not abide by the COVID-19 measures.

We note further the congestion in the public transport sector.

Your Excellency, all these factors, in our view, represent a high risk of the potential spread of COVID-19.

Commending the Primary and Secondary Education ministry for the adoption of the standard operating procedures to guide adoption and adherence to safety under COVID-19 in schools and the inclusion of a sentinel surveillance system to support early detection of outbreaks of COVID-19 in schools.

We, however, continue to raise alarm at the efficacy of such measures when they are not underpinned by testing of students and teacher population in the schools.

We note further that the sharing of desks and textbooks has been banned under COVID-19.

We, therefore, continue to wait for the unveiling of practical, resourced measures to ensure that fragile, underprivileged schools with grossly inadequate learning materials will be supported to ensure non-discriminatory and exclusionary practices and measures.

Your Excellency, in the same breath, we, therefore, continue to highlight the need to prioritise the safety of learners and their teachers from potential COVID-19 risks.

Noting the ongoing challenges within the education sector which require speedy redress, we therefore recommend:

Engagement in dialogue between government and teachers in resolving the ongoing challenges, testing of learners and teachers for COVID-19, strengthening of safety protocols and measures within the education sector to minimise risk of transmission of COVID-19 in schools, provision of face masks and sanitisers at no cost to pupils and teachers.

We would also like to highlight the reports of artistes holding live shows with physical audiences, which in itself is a contravention of COVID-19 regulations.

While we note, and highlight the incredible difficulties faced by the artistic community of Zimbabwe as a result of the lockdown restrictions and regulations that bar live performance shows which drive the lives and livelihoods of the sector, we raise alarm at the increased holding of live shows which have the potential to be super spreader events.

In the same breath, we note the reports of widespread occurrence of popular liquor nightspots, weekend gigs and other popular venues hosting live music shows around the country, without adherence to COVID-19 measures.

Your Excellency, we note the consistent and persistent rise in COVID-19 cases over the past 15 days and note with concern that the resumption of public gatherings, without enforcement of COVID-19 regulations is further exposing Zimbabwe to new COVID-19 infections.

It is against this background that we acknowledge the statements of the Zimbabwe Republic Police on the need to strictly enforce COVID-19 regulations.

We, therefore, call for increased awareness and publication of simplified rules on COVID-19 regulations.

We call for the expedition of real-time support to the artistic sector through both the resilience funds and the vulnerability support to ensure that the fragile arts sector receives real ameliorative support in the context of the ongoing ban on their socio-economic engagements.

Your Excellency, we also draw your attention to the contentious matter regarding resumption of soccer events which focus on the testing mechanisms being deployed for soccer referees in Zimbabwe.

We note, with grave concern that the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa) through the referees committee has requested all 93 referees to report to Zifa House in Harare to submit to COVID-19 tests on October 31 2020. We further note that the referees are being required to submit to a rapid diagnostic test (RDT).

Your Excellency, while we commend efforts to ensure that the resumption of various sectors is supported by testing programmes for those sectors which Zifa has undertaken, unlike other sectors previously highlighted in these reports, we continue to raise concern at the manner in which testing programmes are being designed and deployed.

We, therefore, amplify the grave concerns raised by referees expressing the adoption of RDT testing, which is considered unreliable and insufficient to give a high level of accuracy and true picture of the COVID-19 prevalence in the tested community, as opposed to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing which is considered more reliable.

We amplify the concerns raised by sporting officials who seek the adoption of a stronger testing regime to support their activities in the sports and recreation sector which are characterised by extreme caution globally in order to reduce and eliminate opportunities for exposure and contraction of the COVID-19 virus.

We call upon the Sports and Recreation Commission to intervene in this matter and ensure that Zifa upholds the highest levels of good governance on this matter, including addressing the transparency and accountability for the US$44 000 made available by Fifa to support COVID-19 interventions in Zimbabwe’s sporting community.