Villagers in Mangwe district, Matabeleland South have since dumped face masks which are part of measures by health authorities to curb the spread of Covid-19 pandemic in the country.
Zimbabwe has to date recorded 8021 positive cases of Covid-19 of which 230 are fatalities.
Recoveries now stand at 7627 with 1, 122 people having recovered from the deadly disease in just 24 hours according to the latest update from the Ministry of Health and Child Care.
Active coronavirus virus cases are now at 164 as at October 12.
While the government has since relaxed a number of lockdown measures, reopened the economy and allowed for the resumption of intercity and urban to rural long distance transport service providers to resume operations, wearing of masks especially in public places remains mandatory.
However, a visit to Mangwe over the weekend revealed that the majority of people no longer wear masks.
CITE witnessed villagers at Brunapeg and Khalanyoni business centres going about their business without any masks.
Even those villagers boarding private kombis that ply the routes in the district no longer wear masks.
“People no longer wear masks here, since there is no longer any lockdown,” one villager, Simangaliphi Ncube from Khalanyoni told CITE.
“The mask is no longer an issue here unlike when the lockdown was first imposed. You wouldn’t leave your home without any mask as you risked being arrested.”
Another villager in Brunapeg said the hot weather had also contributed to the ditching of masks by the community.
“It is very hot these days, more with masks covering us!” he said.
“No wonder many have thrown them away. We were after all not comfortable in them.”
However, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned against laxity in the fight against Covid-19, adding countries should be always on the look-out for second waves of the pandemic.
