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Africa Moyo
My wife has changed so much ever since the coronavirus hit this country.

I have been locked down to a bath and new clothes, each time I leave the house. She rules the roost!

Not that I don’t like bathing and changing clothes but this is too much. She has become a dictator of repute.

I have no choice but to comply.

Zimbabwe is on a 21-day lockdown as it frantically tries to combat the spread of coronavirus.

On the streets, some health conscious people wear masks, gloves, apply hand sanitisers regularly and wash hands with soap for 20 seconds.

In my case, I have not yet adopted gloves and masks, and freely walk on the streets of Harare when going shopping at Pick n Pay situated next to Herald House.

At Pick n Pay, they check the temperature and the staffers told me that once you hit 37,8 degrees Celsius, you won’t be allowed in.

Thank God, I have religiously been between 36,5 degrees Celsius and 37 degrees Celsius since Monday.

But while I appear to be casual in protecting myself against coronavirus — by not using masks and gloves — the administration at home led by Mrs Chiratidzo Moyo, is dictatorial.0

On arrival from work, daily, I find fresh clothes hung in the bathroom so that everything I had since morning is taken away.

A bath has to be taken too, so that if the virus somehow got stuck on my hand or head or face, its led by the soap as suggested by medical experts.

The preventive measures are pretty tough on a weekend. If you go out three times, to an environment that has a reasonable number of people, you change clothes and take a shower three times.

Not that I don’t like bathing, but three times or more a day is too much, for a boy who grew up in yonder Mberengwa.

And suddenly, the virus is hitting my pocket big time, as I have to invest in washing powder for all the clothes removed.

Equally, you feel for the clothes; they are washed daily, ironed daily, implying their lifespan is cut short.

With the pricing madness obtaining now, replacing the clothes will require deeper pockets and will take time.

But Mrs Moyo doesn’t seem to care about all that.

“Let’s just make sure, the statistics I see on television, especially from Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, are scary.

“We need to ensure nothing is left to chance,” she says often.

One of her brothers, Beloved Malinganisa, was read the riot act someday for carrying a friend in his car on his way home.

The young man looked puzzled, but a point had been made, and it was still being rammed home.

I have been warned too, “make sure you don’t carry passengers, this virus is real”.

Everyday that passes with confirmed cases in Zimbabwe at eight, I thank God, otherwise the preventive measures could become draconian.

But it’s good that we still have people who respect Covid-19 that much.

If everyone did that, the disease would be defeated without breaking sweat.

But some citizens think the 21-day lockdown announced by President Mnangagwa is “a punishment”.

There have been unwarranted breaches, within the first week, and no one knows what the situation will be like next week.

In some countries, Covid-19 has wiped off entire families, and slowly but surely, citizens in those countries are beginning to take heed.

Coronavirus doesn’t need anyone to learn the hard way, let’s all play our part in preventing it.

With some reservations, I still take up the rigorous measures announced at home for us to prevent Covid-19.

Play your part.