Zimbabwe and the spectre of
Covid-19
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| Zimbabwe covid-19 testing centres (ANSA) |
There are concerns that the prospect of the coronavirus
pandemic taking hold in Zimbabwe will have a devastating effect on a country
already under severe strain.
By Lydia O’Kane
In the past, Zimbabwe was known as the breadbasket of
Africa, exporting wheat, tobacco, and corn to the rest of the world.
But in the last few years the country has been in the grip
of an economic crisis, which has included shortages of food and medicines.
At a time when much of the world is facing the onslaught of
the coronavirus pandemic, there is mounting concern that countries like
Zimbabwe are ill prepared to deal with a major outbreak.
Verity Johnson is Country Representative for CAFOD, the official aid
agency of the Catholic Church in England and Wales and a member of the Caritas
network.
“The prospect of the pandemic taking off in Zimbabwe is
terrifying”, she said. “Zimbabwe’s been in crisis for many years, and it’s been
a multifaceted crisis…we already had around 6 million people facing food insecurity;
6 million people who are hungry and do not have enough to eat and all of that
is exacerbated by the current crisis.”
Health infrastructure
Another concern amid this global pandemic is the country’s
creaking health system, which is already under severe strain.
The CAFOD Country Representative explained that Zimbabwe
already has “a healthcare system which has been rundown; doctors went on strike
earlier this year over their working conditions with a lack of basic equipment
and a lack of medicines.”
Verity went on to say that “already we were seeing needless
deaths from preventable diseases.” She also noted that there aren’t the
medicines or the beds to cope with a crisis of this nature.
To add to the complexity of the situation, the country is
also seeing a “huge rise in malaria cases” and a drop of in the numbers of
people getting vaccinated, she said.
Verity noted that at the moment, the number of infections in
the country is low. But she pointed out they don’t actually know what the
spread of the virus is. This is due to the fact that testing for the disease
has been very low.
There is the concern, she observed, that Zimbabwe “could be
right at the beginning of the curve.”
Raising awareness
Asked about awareness of the disease and access to
information, Verity emphasized, “there have been huge efforts to get
information out, whether by government, also by development partners, by the
Churches. I think there has been a lot of work in trying to get messages out.”
Zimbabwe has a very large rural population and many people
have very limited access to information. She said, at present there is a
lot of misinformation, rumour and fear. There is also a large part of the
country that has little awareness of the disease and its effects.
Unemployment
One of the huge challenges with regard to a pandemic of this
nature, is that around 80 per cent of people in Zimbabwe are not formally
employed.
Speaking about this issue, Verity noted that during the
lockdown markets have been closed which has had “a huge impact on those
livelihoods; people can’t go out and can’t trade, so for those people it’s
absolutely desperate.”
Support for communities
Even before the onset of Covid-19, people in Zimbabwe were
not getting enough food and were going hungry; now that situation has got even
worse.
CAFOD is continuing to provide food to the hardest hit
communities and is focusing on providing access to clean water.
The Zimbabwe Representative highlighted that “it’s very hard
for people to observe the guidance around Covid prevention, around washing your
hands if you don’t have access to water.”
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