The Ministry of labour and Social Welfare has distributed over 7 000mt of grain to vulnerable communities in the country's eight rural Provinces during the National lockdown. This is in line with pronouncements made by President ED Mnangagwa after declaring a national lockdown to curb the spread of Covid19 that Government will ensure that no citizen starves during the period. Cumulatively, 80 000mt of grain have been distributed across the country since the beginning of the year with Government targeting 760 000 households while the World Food Programme will cater for 600 000 households. During the lockdown 21 000 vulnerable households in the Metropolitan Provinces of Harare and Bulawayo have received close to ZW $4m under the Urban Food Deficit Mitigation programme. A further ZW $4.7m has been paid to 26 140 households in other small towns such as Binaural, Kariba and Gwanda. The Ministry says "it has scaled up its social protection programmes to mitigate effects of Covid19 and drought the two phenomenon which rendered the majority of citizens vulnerable and looking up to the state for protection".