Harare-Zimbabwe is considering re-introducing a tough lockdown in the country’s two major cities of Harare and Bulawayo, in what has been viewed as a counter to proposed anti-government protests.

Speaking at a Zanu PF Ordinary Session of Politburo meeting at the party headquarters in Harare today, President Mnangagwa, who is the party’s first secretary, said the recent rapid spike of infections requires another review of the Covid19 lockdown measures.

“Although there is a visible spike in the number of positive cases, largely due to returnees, we shall continue to strengthen our preventive measures as well as our testing and contact tracing capacity.

“I urge the party (Zanu PF) to continue to be in the forefront of raising the awareness levels in our communities of the dangers of this pandemic. The recent rapid spike of infections requires that we make another review of the lockdown of the Covid19 lockdown measures” said President Mnangagwa.

The hint was first made by Information and Publicity Permanent Secretary, Nick Mangwana when he posted on social media suggesting the same.

“Harare has the vast majority of Covid-19 cases. Yesterday (Tuesday), Bulawayo recorded 30 of the 53 positive cases. If there is any scaling up of containment measures, a more surgical approach is better. It means full scale lockdown should only apply to Harare and Bulawayo,” Mangwana wrote on Twitter.

Zimbabwe first introduced a national lockdown on March 30 as a way of containing the Covid-19 pandemic which has seen the country recording Zimbabwe now has 885 cases.

Zimbabweans have been mobilising online for the planned protests under the hashtags #ZanuPFMustGo and #July31.