For Zimbabwe, the confirmed Covid-19 deaths for 2020 numbered in the hundreds, not thousands. Still, Covid-19 could not have come at a worse time owing to a myriad of crises the country was going through. As a result, the Covid-19 pandemic was much more than a public health crisis as it threatened already vulnerable people, putting lives and livelihoods at risk. This article focuses on the socioeconomic impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, examining the social pattern of its unfolding and impact, analyzing the institutional and communal responses to the disease, and marking the effects of its aftermath in Harare’s high-density residential spaces. The research design captures a broad empirical picture of what was happening by specifically drawing on case study examples from Harare, the capital city of Zimbabwe. The broad objective of the research brings out how low-income households experienced the Covid-19 pandemic compared to higher-income households as informed by sex-based differences, access to healthcare, and food. It also captures the differential impacts and inequalities in socioeconomic outcomes, livelihoods, poverty reduction, and human development informing these household experiences. Beyond this, the study captures and highlights how the Covid-19 crisis led to widespread instances of food insecurity, economic anxiety, and general disenfranchisement from alternative sources of income that, in turn, created further social upheaval. The last strand of this article exposes the implications of some of the public health measures instituted in attempts to tackle Covid-19.

对于津巴布韦，2020 年确认的 Covid-19 死亡人数为数百，而不是数千。尽管如此，由于该国正在经历无数危机，Covid-19 的到来时机再糟糕不过了。因此，Covid-19 大流行不仅仅是一场公共卫生危机，因为它威胁到已经很脆弱的人，使生命和生计处于危险之中。本文重点关注新型冠状病毒大流行的社会经济影响，检查其发展和影响的社会模式，分析对该疾病的制度和社区反应，并标记其后果对哈拉雷高密度住宅空间的影响。研究设计通过专门借鉴津巴布韦首都哈拉雷的案例研究，捕捉了正在发生的事情的广泛经验图。该研究的广泛目标揭示了低收入家庭与高收入家庭相比如何经历 Covid-19 大流行，因为基于性别的差异、获得医疗保健和食物的机会。它还捕捉了社会经济成果、生计、减贫和人类发展方面的不同影响和不平等，为这些家庭经历提供了信息。除此之外，该研究还捕捉并强调了 Covid-19 危机如何导致普遍存在的粮食不安全、经济焦虑和普遍剥夺其他收入来源的权利，进而造成进一步的社会动荡。本文的最后一部分揭示了为应对 Covid-19 而采取的一些公共卫生措施的影响。