A health expert has warned that coronavirus could spread rapidly if people continue to ignore measures put in place to control the spread of the virus.
Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said the free movement of people and large queues in banks and other areas make it hard to stop the spread of the virus. He said:
Our infection rate is no longer at zero so when the infection rate goes to three it means that one person will infect three more people and those three will infect three more.
Right now, we are at an exponential curve, the virus is spreading rapidly. It will be hard to stop it if our people continue not to observe lockdown regulations as we have observed with the free movement of people, large queues in banks and other areas.
Dr Ngwenya suggested that the government should further assess the impact of the new cases and possibly re-introduce stringent lockdown regulations.
Zimbabwe has been on lockdown since 30 March but the government has gradually eased the restrictions to allow for more economic activities to be carried out.
The country has experienced a surge in COVD-19 cases (149 as of 28 May 2020) largely emanating from returnees from South Africa and Botswana who are quarantined at centres in Beitbridge in Matabeleland South Masvingo and Harare.