“The Smoke That Thunders” - the English translation of what the waterfall is called in the Sotho language - is still mighty, but the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced visitors to a trickle. Ordinarily, Victoria Falls attracts 350,000 tourists a year, but their numbers have dropped to almost none as a result of travel restrictions.
Although tourists have not returned in large numbers, Victoria Falls mostly has been spared the current wave of COVID-19 that has swept across the rest of Zimbabwe and southern Africa, which health officials attribute to the town's relatively high level of vaccinations. Victoria Falls was where Zimbabwe recorded its first COVID-19 case in March 2020, likely because of its high number of international visitors. A year later, at a time where only medical workers and other essential workers were eligible for vaccines, shots were made available for all of the town's residents age 18 and older.