Times Of Swaziland: MUZI IN RUSSIA COVID-19 INFESTED CITY

MUZI IN RUSSIA COVID-19 INFESTED CITY
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BY THEMBA ZWANE on 07/04/2020 02:28:00


MBABANE – Eswatini Handball Association Secretary General Muzi Mamba has been
in Russia’s total lockdown for two weeks now.
Mamba is studying in Sochi City in the southern part of Russia. “I am doing
Sports Administration at the Russian International Olympic University. The
situation in the city is still not that extreme but all the safety measures are
being taken. We are on our second week of the total lockdown.
Restaurants, bars, parks, public sector, shops and malls and everything is
closed except for supermarkets that open at certain times and are controlled,”
he said.
Mamba said they were only allowed to go shopping for food at shops near to them.
registration
“Here things are organised such that you have a registration of the house or
hotel you are staying at, so you have to carry that paper with you so that when
you meet the police, you are able to show the registration paper that you live
nearby. You also need to have a justification paper for traveling to a further
shop.  For me, I stay in a four-star hotel next to my university and the rest of
the students stay there,” he explained.
Mamba also highlighted that hotels were not allowed to book new clients, meaning
hotels and other accommodation places were also closed for booking. He said they
were only allowed to keep the clients they had before the quarantine was
imposed.
“At the hotels and the few shops that are open, you find a machine that you
press and soapy water comes out to wash your hands and securities in the shops
monitor that. If you are found walking in the street by the police without a
reason satisfying them or without the registration papers to show that you live
nearby, you are arrested and pay huge amounts that I think can amount to about
E5 000,” he said.
The sports administrator added that people there were disciplined, complied and
the streets were quiet as they hardly moved outside. He said even the number of
cars in the roads were minimal, something the police monitored.
studies
“In the case of my studies, we were lucky because my city has been the last
one to record any case, with only 15 cases so far and no deaths. We stopped
going to classes about four weeks ago because in the other parts of Europe, the
virus had already hit them hard yet our professors and other students come from
there. So lectures have been conducted online for the past three weeks,” he
said.
On another note, he said international flights have been grounded since last
week and only local flights were operating. “The quarantine has been set for
the end of April, so from there they will decide a way forward if the situation
is back to normal. Otherwise, Russia is one of the less affected countries in
Europe so far: with almost 6 343 cases and 47 deaths, considering the size of
the country with above a 200 million population,” he said.
Mamba said they hoped the situation would be put under control since they had
taken very strict restriction of movement of people and the people were
complying without the police having to use force.