by Grace Chekai

Government has urged citizens to continue to adhere to COVID-19 control and prevention measures following the continuous rise in local transmission figures.

Speaking during a media brief yesterday, Minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services, Honourable Monica Mutsvangwa said, “As our figures of local transmission remain worrisome and continue to rise, the National Taskforce informs that infection, prevention and control, capacity building nationwide continues.”

The Minister added that, community awareness programmes are gathering momentum and the training of trainers is underway.

“The training of trainers is underway in all eight rural and town metropolitan Provinces. Training of village and community health workers is also underway in all districts.

“Village Health Workers are vital to the country`s health delivery system as they interface with communities on a day to day basis,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Minister Mutsvangwa informed the public that COVID-19 is a novel virus and that new information is learnt each day about it and how to combat it.

“The National Taskforce today noted the changes in the World Health Organization`s protocols on COVID-19.The new protocols include the revision of the definitions of suspected and probable cases to take into account the increased knowledge on the clinical spectrum of COVID-19, signs and symptoms and updated approaches to surveillance,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Minister Mutsvangwa said interventions were bearing fruit owing to the implementation of these new protocols.

“Recoveries have risen from 1 998 to 4 442 for the period between 14 August to 19 August 2020, largely due to the changes in the determination of the serostatus, which is the state of either having or not having detectable antibodies of COVID-19 in patients,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.

Minister Mutsvangwa said presently there are 1 293 persons in quarantine facilities, which marks a significant reduction from the figures reported in previous weeks. The WHO guidelines are recommending that the quarantine period be reduced from 21 to 14 days.

She encouraged citizens to avoid venturing out, but only travel when absolutely necessary and those who do not have to travel during peak hours to avoid travelling during high congestion times.

To date, Zimbabwe has recorded 6 070 coronavirus cases, 155 deaths and 4 950 recoveries.