Vice President Constantino Chiwenga
HARARE,– The Zimbabwean government on Saturday restored a curfew and banned all gatherings, except for funerals, for 30 days as the country battles to contain a surge in COVID-19 infections.
As was the case during the initial lockdown restrictions in March 2020, only essential services such as hospitals, pharmacies and supermarkets will remain open.
However, these services will now operate between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
The country has of late witnessed a high number of local infections amid fears that the second wave of the pandemic will be more deadly than the first.
As of Saturday, Zimbabwe recorded 14,491 cases and 377 deaths with about 1,400 infections reported this week.
AMID soaring deaths and numbers of people infected by the lethal coronavirus, concerned health experts warned anew yesterday that the country was facing a Covid-19 storm which could have devastating consequences for the nation and its people.
In addition, the experts also told the Daily News that authorities now needed to move with renewed vigour to revise and monitor the current coronavirus restrictions, to avert a looming catastrophe among many complacent communities.
This comes as the government has deferred the opening of schools this year, following rising Covid-19 deaths and infections in the country.
It also comes amid a worrying slip of discipline among many Zimbabwean communities, with a New Year’s eve gathering in Harare’s high-density suburb of Mbare, for example, highlighting the growing lack of vigilance that locals now have regarding the deadly respiratory disease.
‘2020 marks death of public health system’
BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
In the midst of severe economic unrest, the Zimbabwean healthcare system has been disintegrating and coming apart at the seams over the years and 2020 took it a notch higher with the advent of COVID-19.
As the curtain comes down on 2020, health stakeholders and workers reflected on the sector in the face of COVID-19 as well as the inherent challenges. Many said the year marked the death of the public health system.
Enock Dongo (Zimbabwe Nurses Association)
“We were the hardest hit as frontline workers. Nurses are the first port of call and that means increased exposure. When COVID-19 cases started being recorded in Zimbabwe, we had no clue as nurses about the novel disease. We were blank. We had just read about it but lacked the appropriate knowledge to manage cases. A few trainings were done but many were not trained. We estimate that only a quarter received the training.
New Covid-19 variant worries health experts
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OCAL health experts have warned the government to be on the lookout for a new Covid-19 variant which is causing new cases to surge in neighbouring South Africa, the
Daily News reports.
This comes at a time when the experts are concerned with the Zimbabwe health delivery system’s capacity to adequately deal with the current form of the virus.
At the weekend, South Africa’s health authorities announced they have discovered a new strain of Covid-19, which is spreading rapidly and is attacking more children than adults.
The new variant, known as 501.V2, is driving South Africa’s current resurgence of the disease, which is seeing higher numbers of confirmed cases, hospitalisations and deaths.