By The Citizen Reporter

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Zimbabwe says the so-called South African variant of Covid-19, which is more transmissible, has become the most dominant in the country as the government ordered security forces to tighten lockdown restrictions.

The southern African country recorded a huge spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths after reopening its borders last December.

It was forced to re-introduce a tough lockdown last month and closed all its land borders to slow down the spread of the virus.

South Africa reopened its borders on Monday, but health experts have warned Zimbabwe to keep its points of entry closed because it risked being overwhelmed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said studies had revealed that the original Covid-19 strain was receding in Zimbabwe.

"Cabinet wishes to inform the nation that the results of the genomic sequencing recently conducted indicate that the type of Covid-19 virus that the nation had in 2020 has receded," Mrs Mutsvangwa told journalists in Harare.

"There is now a 60 percent dominance of the new South African variant virus, which spreads faster and has a higher fatality rate," she added.

"Accordingly, the nation now needs to be more vigilant than before and adhere to Covid-19 prevention and control measures.

"Security personnel have, therefore, been directed to intensify monitoring and enforcement (of lockdown regulations) to enhance compliance."

As of February 16, Zimbabwe had recorded 35 315 Covid-19 cases with 1 414 deaths and 30 979 recoveries.

Health experts have advised Zimbabwe  to keep its land borders closed after South Africa reopened its points of entry on Monday.

"South Africa is currently faced with an increased burden of a new variant of Covid-19," said Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights director Calvin Fambirai.

"Additionally, it also has one of the highest number of cases in the Sadc region.

"Opening borders with South Africa may result in an influx of imported cases complicating the Covid-19 situation in the country."

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe  will start  administering the Covid-19 vaccine to health care workers on Thursday after taking delivery of 200 000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine early this week.

Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who also doubles up as Health and Child Care minister, told Parliament on Tuesday that government had budgeted $6.7 million to vaccinate  10 million people to achieve herd immunity.

"We are going to bring vaccines into the country every two weeks to make sure there is no break in inoculation," Retired General Chiwenga said.

Zimbabwe expects to take delivery of 600 000 more doses from Sinopharm by the first week of March.

The government said it would buy 1.8 million doses from the Chinese vaccine maker.

It is also negotiating with other vaccine makers in the United Kingdom, Russia and India for more supplies.