The director of the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare’s epidemiology and disease control, Portia Manangazira has said that Zimbabwe has no plans of quarantining visitors from the coronavirus-affected China.

Mananganzira said that it is expensive and against the World Health Organisation (WHO) regulations to quarantine those visitors. She said:

We have already started self-quarantining. Those under surveillance are advised to do minimal interactions for at least 14 days. Things like going to church and meeting should be avoided for now. Sponsored: Click here to buy NetOne, Telecel Airtime online using EcoCash In the event that someone coming straight from Wuhan or other affected countries has shown symptoms of the virus, we will then quarantine them at the hospital. We cannot quarantine all travellers coming from affected areas in one place because it’s expensive and against World Health Organisation (WHO) regulations.

The deadly virus erupted in Wuhan, China in December last year and has since claimed more than 700 lives with thousands having tested positive to the virus.

Some countries including the United States of America have repatriated some of their citizens whilst suspected cases of the virus have since been quarantined.

The timing of the outbreak is very concerning considering that Zimbabwe’s health sector is collapsed.

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