Zimbabwe is reopening its land borders after closing them for over a year to ordinary travellers due to a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The country’s points of entry on borders with Botswana, South Africa, Mozambique and Zambia were only open for commercial traffic and returning residents since January last year.
Only airports handled non-commercial activities and returning residents as Zimbabwe battled different waves of the pandemic.
Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa told journalists in Harare that a cabinet meeting had approved the reopening of land borders for travellers with valid Covid-19 PCR test certificates.
“All persons entering Zimbabwe must have undergone a valid Covid-19 test not more than 48 hours from the time of their departure to Zimbabwe and fully vaccinated,” Mrs Mutsvangwa said.
“Despite the continued decline in the number of new cases and deaths reported per day, strict enforcement of all Covid-19 regulations coupled with strengthened risk communication on the pandemic must continue since the pandemic is not yet over.”
On Tuesday, Zimbabwe recorded 260 new cases from a peak of above 5,000 at the height of the fourth wave of the Covid-19 outbreak that was driven by the Omicron variant.
In the past month, there has been a steady decline in the number of new cases and this has led to the gradual reopening of the country’s economy.
They usually return home in large numbers during holidays. There are also thousands who cross into South Africa and Botswana using illegal entry points to search for work.
Zimbabwean police said they arrested 89,000 people who were caught trying to enter illegally between January 2020 and January this year.
The southern African country is also used by immigrants from as far away as Ethiopia and Somalia as a transit route into South Africa due to its porous borders.
