Lockdown Strategies Adopted by the Zimbabwean Government to Avert the Spread of COVID-19: Media Responses, Challenges and Opportunities

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic significantly impacted most countries globally, including Zimbabwe The government of Zimbabwe instituted several strategies to contain the spread of COVID-19 This study explored the challenges and opportunities that emanated from the strategies that were adopted It focused on how the generality of Zimbabwean citizens responded to the government's COVID-19 response and the opportunities arising from the various interventions We adopted a qualitative approach to analyse thirty-four (n=34) tweets responding to government strategies to contain the spread of COVID-19 The study found a lack of confidence in the mechanisms devised by the government, considering the socio-economic context of hyper-inflation and a severely incapacitated public health system The dominant sentiment pointed to a lax in the response by the government, jeorpardising chances of containing the pandemic Most people argued that more resources should have been allocated towards fighting COVID-19 The radical decision to declare a 21-day lockdown was received with mixed feelings Most people criticised the lockdown for failing to consider the status-quo where majority of Zimbabweans survive from hand to mouth due to the informal nature of the economy However, some people acknowledged the merit of putting the country in lockdown mode The tweets re-iterated the need to forge strong and well-coordinated public-private partnerships to generate the much-needed resources to fight COVID-19, given that substantial financial and material support was availed to the government through individuals and the private sector Future studies should explore socio-economic implications of the lockdown on Zimbabweans © 2020 Adonis and Abbey Publishers Ltd All rights reserved