EDITORIAL COMMENT
THE country is battling a second wave of coronavirus that has forced government to proclaim a more stringent lockdown for an initial period of 30 days.
Although there have been no officially recorded cases of the new variant of COVID-19, suspected to be spreading from South Africa, the number of cases has been ballooning to alarming levels in recent days.
The total number of recorded cases is now 17 194, with 418 deaths as of yesterday morning.
As part of measures to contain the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga banned all physical meetings and public gatherings during the lockdown period.
In these conditions, social media has a role to responsibly give citizens instant, reliable and factual information to help them make quick and informed decisions concerning their health.
In these trying times, people need to regularly get updates on current trends, deaths, recoveries and lockdown orders.
The demand for this first-hand information and reliable news and updates on coronavirus outbreak has fuelled the appetite for social media use.
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Its importance cannot be over-emphasised during such trying times.
Social media has transformed ordinary citizens from mere content consumers to creators either as a way to inform others or to kill time during the lockdown.
However, despite some positives brought about by this means of communication, some people have used social media to spread fake news, causing alarm and despondency in the process.
A case in point is that of a police officer who was said to have “fatally” struck a baby strapped to her mother’s back in Harare on Tuesday.
It later turned out that the child was alive and well with no injuries. A video of the police officer being mobbed circulated on social media platforms and inconsistent claims were repeatedly peddled.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi had to issue a Press statement setting the record straight, highlighting what had transpired when on-duty officers tried to arrest an errant commuter omnibus driver along Sam Nujoma Street in Harare on Tuesday.
As people were still coming to terms with the purported death of a child at the hands of a “rogue” police officer, social media pundits were at it again, this time alleging that MDC-T vice-president Thokozani Khupe had succumbed to COVID-19.
Khupe, who lost the MDC-T presidency to Douglas Mwonzora recently, had taken to Twitter informing the world that she had tested positive for coronavirus and was in self-isolation. The “news” circulated fast on social media and some were quick to pass condolence messages. It was later dismissed as a social media hoax as Khupe is recuperating in isolation.
Now, there is fear that even news of a natural death will quickly pass as COVID-19-related.
In ordinary times, weird stuff like this can be ignored, but during the pandemic, it is dangerous because misinformation and deliberate disinformation on social media undermines the important messages that the public should be consuming.
Circulating false COVID-19 information is criminal and perpetrators should be arrested.
