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Andile Tshuma, Chronicle Correspondent
POLICE are working with a number of Government departments to devise means of capturing the true identity of returning residents as they are booked into quarantine centres for Covid-19 screening.

Some people deliberately give false information and later escape from centres, exposing communities to the deadly pandemic.

So far, 290 people have escaped from quarantine centres and police have arrested only 29.

National Police Spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi yesterday said it is a challenge to follow up escapees only to realise they gave false identities.

According to reports, some escapees would be wanted criminals and would be concealing their identities to avoid arrest.

Asst Comm Nyathi said the multi sectoral approach would enhance data capture.

“A multi sectorial team involving the police, immigration, local government and social welfare to ensure that people who are taken for isolation or quarantine reveal their true identity. This is to ensure that those who give false particulars would have themselves to blame when the law descends on them,” he said.

“In terms of the country’s laws, if anyone gives false particulars, it is a chargeable offence. We are therefore working together through the multisectoral approach to try and deal with some of the loop holes that make it possible for people to give false information. It is difficult to follow people up when they escape from these centres if they would have given false particulars about themselves. So, it is very important to capture the true identity about people as they come in,” said Asst Comm Nyathi.

He said Covid-19 lockdown arrests continue on an upward trajectory, with a total of 1 011 people having been arrested on Saturday for various offences related to flouting Covid-19 regulations.

A cumulative 124 990 people have been arrested since the initial lockdown on March 30 countrywide, Harare topping the list at 26 723, followed by Manicaland province with 23 522 arrests. Bulawayo comes third with 16 715 arrests.

Police said liquor related offences continued to be a problem, which they said was worrying when looking at the rate at which Covid-19 cases are increasing in the country. — @andile_tshuma