BULAWAYO – The Zimbabwe International Trade Fair – the country’s premier business exhibition – has been postponed to September, organisers said on Thursday.
Busisa Moyo, the board chairman of the ZITF Company, said the coronavirus third wave gripping Zimbabwe is projected to peak from mid-July until sometime in August, rendering their previously announced dates of July 20-23 unsafe to host the exhibition.
The ZITF is hosted by the second city of Bulawayo, usually in the first quarter of the year, but it was cancelled last year following the virus outbreak.
“We’re still consulting. We’ve mapped the third wave to the end of August, and we’re preparing with late September, but before the first week of October, in mind. That’s our current thinking,” Moyo told ZimLive.
In a letter to industry and trade minister Sesai Nzenza this week, Moyo said “local as well as foreign exhibitors are gravely concerned about travelling and exhibiting given the current trajectory of the pandemic in Zimbabwe.”
The government has announced tougher restrictions for the next two weeks as it bids to arrest a spike in cases.
On Wednesday, Zimbabwe reported 28 deaths – the deadliest day since the end of January. At least 1,331 new infections were detected on the same day, taking the country’s total cases to date to 49,864. At least 1,789 of those cases ended in death.
Zimbabwe is trying to scale up its vaccination programme, but a shortage of vaccines and limited facilities offering the jabs has slowed down the process. Just 555,277 of the country’s 15 million people are fully vaccinated.
