Wearing masks now a Must:Dr Moyo

In a bid to curb the deadly Covid-19 pandemic,wearing a mask in public places is now a must from today in terms of the new public health regulations gazetted on Saturday 2 May 2020.Those who fail to comply on wearing when leaving home can be arrested.

However, masks can be improvised in terms of the regulations.

Health and Child Care minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said yesterday that it was now mandatory to wear masks.

He went on to say masks could be anything from doeks to anything that could be used for purposes of being barrier from the nose and mouth to the direct world.

Dr Moyo encouraged small business people to come up with their own business initiatives of making masks at home. We want the country to be self-sustainable in terms of masks he said.

Articulating the new requirements, the minister said: “Each time you leave home, you have to don that mask without fail because we want to reduce infection, that’s the whole purpose. We are doing it in two ways; staying indoors or you wear a mask. When you do go out you must reduce the chances of getting infected so you have to wear a mask.

“We are encouraging all the supermarkets or wherever in the industry to make sure that you do not serve people who do not wear masks. We don’t like a situation where supermarkets end up with hundreds of people inside so they have to control the people who come in”, said Dr Moyo.

Attorney- General Advocate Prince Machaya emphasized yesterday that those who did not wear a mask in public places would be fined or could even be jailed.

Addressing journalists at State House last night, Adv Machaya said:” Any person who will be found in any public place not wearing a mask will be committing a crime and will be liable to pay a fine up to level 12 or imprisonment to a period that does not exceed one year so its fairly serious. Members of the public should be aware that they need to have their masks on whenever they are in public places so that they are not arrested for committing a crime”.

Dr Moyo reiterated, paying attention to testing of workers at private laboratories that they would be charging a normal fee that would be regulated by the government.

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