The Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers Association  (‘ZELA’) has undertaken to track the real and potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mining communities in Zimbabwe on a weekly basis. During the first week, March 21-28, ZELA conducted a quick survey of the state of play in artisanal and small-scale mining communities. The idea was to assess how women miners, artisanal and small-scale miners and diggers, villagers and mining-affected communities are coping and responding to the global threat, anxiety, fear and deaths brought about by COVID-19. Around the world, COVID-19 is gravely disrupting whole mining supply chains, economies, the social fabric, stretching service delivery capacities, and in the process raising profound state, private sector and political accountability questions. Many rural families in Zimbabwe depend on mining and other natural resources for their livelihoods. This is a series of the situational reports as published by ZELA which will be updated on a weekly basis as and when we receive the reports.