1/10 The countdown to the lockdown is over but the govt remains clueless about how to fight the #coronavirus. This is because it's in denial & ignorant about how the virus is spreading in Zim. To the govt, the lockdown is about "keeping up with the Joneses"; everyone is doing it! 
2/10 Sadly, but not surprising, the govt is treating the lockdown as a law and order operation. Yet it should be a medical lockdown defined & visible by medical interventions to stem the spread of the #coronavirus backed by measures to safeguard livelihoods & protect the economy!
3/10 Evidence of govt's ineptitude is scandalous. For example, @MoHCCZim, the presumed lead agency in the fight against the #coronavirus, has started the first day of the lockdown with an update that govt has done only 194 #COVID19 tests to date & that no test was done yesterday!
4/10 A medical emergency, meant to stem the spread of the #coronavirus pandemic, has been scandalously turned into a law & order operation to quarantine Zimbabweans in their homes when, sadly, the majority of them have no homes & live in overcrowded dwellings or in the streets!
5/10 Evidence that the lockdown is now a law & order operation is everywhere. Statutory Instrument 77 of 2020, the #COVID19 SI, lists police officers first, as "enforcement officers". Medics, the real first responders, come second. The police & the information minister are happy!
6/10 Govt's claim that "staying at home is the best remedy to #COVID19" is true for the elite; not for the homeless masses in informal settlements & those who live in crowded rooms in townships & in farm or mining compounds where the required social distancing is just impossible!
7/10 Hard as this might be for the govt to stomach, there's a clear & present need to enforce social distancing by quarantining in schools, colleges or hotels, the homeless in informal settlements & those who live in overcrowded rooms in the townships & farm or mining compounds!
8/10 Quarantining in public shelters the homeless & those in crowded spaces for the next 21 days would require the govt to feed them & cater for their medical needs. This would be real social distancing in the Zim context & would stem the spread of the #coronavirus & save lives!
9/10 In addition to lacking a social distancing strategy, the lockdown has no testing & treatment strategy. It's criminal that as of 29 March, there were only 194 #COVID19 tests done. This alone is enough to show that the law & order lockdown is about keeping up appearances!
10/10 It's cynical to order the homeless to go home. And it's wrong to force people living in crowded rooms in townships or in mining & farm compounds to stay there for 21 days & to take that as social distancing against the #coronavirus. It's not too late to right this wrong!
