Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs Minister Abednico Ncube has called for a heavy deployment of security forces along the country’s borders with South Africa and Botswana.
This follows reports of returnees sneaking into the country without being subjected to the 21-day mandatory quarantine.
Speaking on Monday during his tour of isolation centres in Gwanda, Minister Ncube those who are avoiding quarantine are putting local communities at risk of the spread of the novel coronavirus. He said:
As a province, we have received with great concern reports of people that are getting into the country mostly from South Africa through illegal entry points.
This is alarming because we are faced with a pandemic and anyone coming into the country has to go through necessary health checks.
… we are a border province and such activities will pose a huge threat for us.
On Monday, police manning a roadblock at Ngundu Growth Point in Masvingo Province intercepted 18 Zimbabwean returnees suspected to have crossed into the country from South Africa illegally.
They were then taken to Rupangwana Isolation Centre in Chiredzi for mandatory COVID-19 testing and quarantining.
Zimbabwe currently has 37 confirmed cases of COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by SARS-CoV-2, the new coronavirus.