It is illegal for anyone to harbour returnees who have not
gone through the proper repatriation procedures and screening for Covid-19, a
Cabinet Minister has said.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister
Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists at State House in Harare after the ad hoc
Inter-ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 meeting on Tuesday that Government
would continue receiving returning residents and legal residents coming home.
“We continue to receive returning and legal residents who
had been domiciled outside Zimbabwe.
“As our citizens come home, they are required to adhere to
the laid down regulations that includes screening, testing and quarantining.
These measures are there to protect their loved ones here at home. We cannot
run away from the fact that a greater number of our positive cases are from
returnees.
“It is illegal for anyone to harbour any returnees who have
not gone through the proper repatriation procedures and health screening. Let
me take this opportunity to urge each and every one of us to do the right thing
where preventative and protective measures are concerned,” said Minister
Mutsvangwa.
She reaffirmed that traditional leaders play a critical
role in the dissemination of information in rural communities.
“This information dissemination role has been key in
raising awareness on Covid-19 and ensuring adherence to the protective and
preventative measures in these communities,” she said.
Traditional leaders, she said, would be mobilising their
communities in the apprehension of those returnees who abscond from quarantine
centres and those who returned home through illegal crossing points.
She called for collective responsibility as a nation to
practise good hygiene, and wear masks properly in public spaces.
Government is monitoring illegal returnees coming from
South Africa using undesignated entries to evade being quarantined for the pandemic
and those who are escaping from quarantine centres.
Recently, many returnees have escaped from various
quarantine centres where they were confined as part of mandatory measures to
control the spread of Covid-19.
The law prescribes that all returning residents be
subjected to screening and testing, including a 21-day mandatory quarantine,
although after eight days and the second negative test they can be quarantined
at home. Herald
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