by Innocent Mujeri

The Ministry of Health and Child Care announced yesterday that the number of COVID-19 cases in Zimbabwe has reached ten including one death after one of the 13 samples tested by the National Microbiology Reference Laboratory tested positive.

This comes at a time the Government has intensified efforts to curb the spread of the virus, with a 21-day lockdown being enforced.

According to the COVID-19 daily update released yesterday by the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the number of COVID-19 cases has risen to ten with the latest patient being a 24 old female resident of Harare who came from the United Kingdom two weeks ago.

“The tenth patient is a 24 year old female resident of Harare who arrived from the United Kingdom two weeks ago. The local Rapid Response Team visited her home after receiving an alert call to assess the family, and samples were taken for COVID-19 testing. She is clinically stable and under self-isolation at home,” reads the statement from Ministry of Health and Child Care.

The Ministry further urged citizens to practise high standards of hygiene and avoid close contact with the people who are sick, coughing or sneezing.

The Government is not letting anything to chance in the fight against COVID-19 and on 17 March, President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the pandemic a national disaster and has since announced an avalanche of measures, including a 21-day lockdown, to mitigate the spread of the pandemic.

To show the Government’s seriousness in its fight against COVID-19, President Mnangagwa set up a taskforce led by Vice President Kembo Mohadi to mobilize resources for the fight against the virus.

Recently all State universities have been capacitated so that they can start the production of personal protective clothing ranging from medical gowns, sanitisers and face masks.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has also advised the public that the country now has the expertise and manpower to test for COVID-19.

The Ministry said to date  the country  has 132 Gene Expert Machines in public health institutions which are soon to be used for COVID-19 testing in Provincial and District Hospitals.

Government has also engaged private institutions to complement in COVID-19 testing and to date, the Government has received various medical equipment from the private sector to assist in the fight against COVID 19.

The country also received an assortment of medical equipment from Chinese business mogul, Jack Ma to be used in the fight against COVID 19.

The numbers of people infected with COVID 19 is expected to remain low due to the measures put in place by Government.