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Herald Reporter

Amended lockdown regulations giving effect to the relaxations announced by President Mnangagwa last week insist on full vaccination for those engaging in low-risk sports, eating in restaurants, visiting cinemas or theatres, going to the gym or fitness centre, or watching specially permitted medium risk or high-risk sports.

This opens the possibility that fully vaccinated spectators could be allowed to watch soccer matches and other sports events.

Social gatherings, which include church services, fall under the rules that such gatherings cannot exceed 100 people, but where they take place in an area declared a hotspot, or next to such an area, the organiser or the local enforcement officer can insist that all those participating are fully vaccinated.

Everyone at these permitted gatherings must be masked, sanitised, maintain social distance and have their temperature checked.

Spectators at any permitted medium risk or high-risk sport gathering, and these are permitted case-by-case with no automatic rights, must be full vaccinated under the new rules.

Where there is a requirement for full vaccination, a person who has not had both shots can, at the discretion of the person responsible for or convening the gathering, be admitted if they produce a negative test result obtained within the past 48 hours from either a PCR test or rapid antigen test. They also have to be free of all symptoms and obey the same masking and other rules of the vaccinated.

In addition the regulations gazetted by Vice President and Minister of Health and Child Care Constantino Chiwenga last week, give the Government the flexibility to declare 14-day hotspot orders, which can be renewed once, when there is a serious outbreak of Covid-19 in any place in Zimbabwe. All that is required to immediately put in place these tighter controls is an order signed by the Health Minister.

When the hotspot order is activated, the place in question falls under the same regulations that applied to Kwekwe, Kariba, Hurungwe and Makonde district before the level four lockdown was declared for the whole nation. 

This means that any area declared a hotspot goes under tighter controls and has shorter work hours, a longer curfew and no intercity travel.

The regulations, besides lowering the lockdown to Level 2, and adjusting the curfew and the business operating hours, also permit on-line court cases where the facilities and technology is in place. 

Workshops must continue to be virtual unless special permission has been granted and non-essential businesses must cut staff at the premises by half.