Zimbabwe food security monitoring report: February 2021
The cumulative number of confirmed cases increased from 33,271 cases including 1,193 deaths in 31 January 2021 to 35,994 cases including 1,458 deaths by 28 February 2021. The government rolled out a COVID‐19 vaccination programme which priorities frontline workers aŌer receiving 200,000 doses (to cover 100,000 people) of the Sinopharm vaccines donated by China. The level 4 lockdown restrictive measures were downgraded to level 1 paving way for the reopening of both formal and informal businesses which are not classified as essential services and were not allowed to operate during the lockdown. The country continued to receive above normal rainfall during the month of February leading to water logging in some parts of the country. Crop and livestock conditions were reported to be good in most districts with harvest expected to start around April 2021. Annual inflation continues to record a decline from 363% recorded in January to 322% in February 2021. Food inflation followed a similar trend decreasing from 369% in January to 359% in February 2021. The Zimbabwe Hunger Map LIVE showed the number of people experiencing insufficient food consumption at 5.6 million during the last week of February, indicating a increase of 500,000 people over the previous month. The use of food‐based coping also reportedly increased during February.
