A second suspected coronavirus (COVID-19) patient is under isolation in a hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe media reported. Picture: AP Photo/Lee Jin-man
State-controlled newspaper The Herald reported that the measures were part of a stringent regime adopted by Cabinet in the capital Harare as the southern African country intensified efforts to protect its citizens.
It quoted health and child care minister Dr Obadiah Moyo as saying such visitors would be sent back immediately at ports of entry.
“Those who come without medical certificates showing that they were examined by government doctors from their countries of origin, we will simply say ‘thank you for the visit, but we are sending you back,” Moyo said.
“We are doing this to ensure that we don’t have people who bring coronavirus into our country. We will take all stringent measures to ensure that we don’t have coronavirus in Zimbabwe.”
On Tuesday, the World Health Organisation said the global death toll from the disease first reported in China had breached the 3 000 mark.
“There is now a total of 90 893 reported cases of COVID-19 globally, and 3 110 deaths, but in the past 24 hours, China has reported 129 cases, the lowest number of cases since Thursday,” WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“Outside China, 1 848 cases were reported in 48 countries. Eighty percent of those cases are from just three countries: the Republic of Korea, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Italy.”
He said 12 new countries had reported their first cases and there were now 21 countries with one case, while 122 countries had not reported any cases.
“The actions these newly-affected countries take today will be the difference between a handful of cases and a larger cluster,” Ghebreyesus said.
