"We do have new (covid-19) cases at the hospital and the figures have changed but am not at liberty to disclose anything at the moment,” said Mpilo Central Hospital Clinical Director and Acting CEO Dr Solwayo Ngwenya.
“All I can say is that the behavour of people in the city is worrying. It is as if all is normal. If you look at the human and vehicular traffic on our streets, you will be shocked.”
Why should the public be concerned when they have been told the virus is NOT spreading in their community!
Until a week ago, 26 May the nation was told that there were 63 confirmed covid-19 cases; 4 have dead, 25 have completely recovered and the remaining 34 were in isolation.
Yes, the cases have since shot up. As of Saturday 30th May 2020 there are now 174 confirmed cases; only 10 out of the 111 new cases are local infections and the rest are returnees who are in quarantine already. And, once again, the nation was reassured all the new cases are isolation.
If there are any covid-19 cases in the local population then why has nothing been said about these cases? So, it is therefore not surprising that the people are not as diligent in social distancing, washing hands regularly, wearing mask, etc.
They have no reason to disbelieve the government reports says there are covid-19 cases in the general populous. None! Of course, Dr Ngwenya and many others know better.
Last Wednesday Mpilo Hospital reported 4 covid-19 cases infection in the Hospital, one nurse and three patients. None of these 4 new cases have been included in Obadia Moyo, Minister of Health and Child Care (the only body at liberty to report on corona virus matters anyone else will be risking 20 year jail term).
There is no doubt that Mpilo Hospital was not the first clinic or hospital to come across a covid-19 case, have the test done to confirm it was covid-19 and yet discover the case is not included in the official covid-19 report. Indeed, after reporting the 4 covid-19 cases last week, Dr Ngwenya has once again zipped his mouth shut on corona virus matters.
“If you look at the human and vehicular traffic on our streets, you will be shocked,” said Dr Ngwenya. His shock is all contrived.
The real shock here is how Zimbabwe’s health professionals are conniving with this Zanu PF regime to keep the people ignorant of the spreading corona virus in the country. The regime has failed to contain the virus because of its blundering incompetence and to hide its failures it is under reporting virus cases. And the people, not knowing there are many infectious people in the midst, are not taking any precautions.
If the people knew the truth about how covid-19 is spreading and they still refused to wash their hands regularly, etc.; fair enough, blame the people for being reckless. But when those in positions of power and authority conspire to keep the people ignorant; of course, it is the conniving bureaucrats who must be held to account.
If the Chinese doctor, Dr Li Wenliang, of Wuhan General Hospital, he had cowed to Chinese Communist Party buffoons who wanted the corona virus outbreak kept a secret, how much worse off will the world be today? Sadly, not in Zimbabwe, the command of the buffoons still holds sway over reason and the command to save humanity!
“Am not at liberty to disclose corona virus cases!” Sure, and so too is Minister Obadia Moyo! And hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are now doomed to get the corona virus, many will suffer and many will die!
“Am not at liberty to disclose corona virus cases!” But are at liberty to condemn hundreds of thousands to suffer and die of the virus! We are what we are; a nation of brain-dead clowns!
ReplyDelete“Every American official from our President to Minneapolis’ African American Police Chief Medaria Arradondo has vowed to deliver justice. Zimbabweans surely wonder when, after so many years, Patrick Nabanyama, Itai Dzamara, and Paul Chizuze will get justice.
“Americans will continue to speak out for justice whether at home or abroad. We can meet the ideals of our founding, we will change this world for the better,” said Nichols Monday afternoon.
Floyd was killed a week ago in Minneapolis, Minnesota, as a white police officer pressed his knee into Floyd’s neck even as he cried he couldn’t breathe. One officer has been charged with murder.
His death has sparked a week of protests that turned violent in cities across the U.S.
Zanu PF is just using what is happening in America as a smoke screen to justify the regime’s own continued abuse of its own citizens. The irony is most of the Americans on both sides of the divide on this George Floyd issue will feel insulted to have a despotic Zanu PF regime taking their side!
Black Americans have come a long way in their fight for freedom and human rights but they also know that the situation the people of Zimbabwe are facing under this Zanu PF dictatorship is equally intolerable. As much as the black Americans would welcome support in their fight for freedom and justice they are smart enough to know support from a murderous regime guilty of the same crimes and worse is a curse and not a blessing!
MDC T leader Thokozani Khupe has recommended that the following MPs be recalled from Parly for siding with Nelson Chamisa after the court declared Khupe the legitimate MDC T leader, according to the Daily News.
ReplyDeleteMDC has lost political credibility and what happened next is just academic!
ZIMBABWE has recorded four new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 178.
ReplyDeleteAccording to the Ministry of Health and Child Care, three people who returned from South Africa and one person from Mozambique tested positive for Covid-19.
The number of corona virus cases has shot up by 115 in the last week alone and all the new cases are of returnees except for 10 local ones. Based on these figures, one would not see why Universities and Colleges should not go ahead and reopen followed by schools in two or three weeks time. And yet one is loathed to give the go ahead because one knows the official covid-19 cases are inaccurate – worse still deliberately so too.
Last Wednesday Mpilo Hospital revealed 4 people had contracted the virus, to date Ministry of Health and Child Care reports have yet to include these cases. On Friday, Mpilo Clinical Director and Acting CEO Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said there were new Covid-19 infections at the hospital but “was not at liberty to disclose the number”. Again, there is no evidence to suggest these new cases have been included in the official reports.
There is no doubt that the official reports are missing out the local covid-19 cases. And it is obvious why!
The regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic means the country has not only failed to contain the corona virus but worse still, it is spreading far and wide. The regime does not want the evidence of its failures to come out and so it is hiding the true corona virus figures. This is a very foolish and downright criminal move because people who should be taking the precautions against virus infection are not doing so because they don’t know there are infectious people around.
Government spokesperson Nick Mangwana said Zimbabwe did not consider itself "America's adversary".
ReplyDelete"We prefer having friends and allies to having unhelpful adversity with any other nation including the USA," Mangwana tweeted late on Sunday.
So what was George Charamba blubbering about threatening to deploy a SADC force.
"Clearly the Administration is unable to protect US citizens, in which case RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT stricture must kick in. The SADC STANDBY BRIGADE is supremely ready to deploy at all maximum means and capabilities needed to put out this raging fire!!!" said Charamba.
Zanu PF has perfected the art of shadow boxing, it wants to be seen as the nation that will take on all comers, especially the “western imperialists”. The regime has then blamed the west for all the country’s economic, social and political problems; Zimbabwe is being punished for standing up to the bullying west!
The real tragedy is that the sanctions the west imposed on Mugabe and his cronies have not worked because the west have not enforced them with the diligent the matter demanded. The sanctions should be enforced or scrapped!
@ Mwembe
ReplyDelete“I think you got it wrong. Ngwenya is just a worker at Mpilo hospital. Whatever numbers of infections take place he passes the information to the ministry which has the authority to announce. He is 100% correct that he is not at liberty to disclose covid19 results that is not his job,” you said.
“Just look across the border in SA all announcements are done by Minister of health u Mkize. It is very simple and straight forward. The problem here the minister of health is just useless not even incompetent useless.”
I agree with you totally that Zimbabwe’s “problem is the Minister of Heath is useless”.
I will go one step further and put to you that in falsifying the true figures of corona virus, i.e. telling the people there are no cases of covid-19 cases in the community when the virus is spreading like wild fire, the Minister is putting the health of the whole nation at risk.
Remember that Zimbabwe’s health service had already collapse before the corona virus outbreak, unlike many other countries in the region, and so even 10 seriously ill corona virus patient at any of our big hospitals like Mpilo will be enough to completely overwhelm the hospital. In short, Zimbabwe cannot afford a corona virus outbreak. And yet you can see the runaway train coming and all because a regime wants to give the impression it is the most competent government in the region.
In my humble opinion Dr Ngwenya and his fellow doctors up and down the country have a simple choice to comply with a demonic directive not to tell the truth about the serious corona virus outbreak to please the demons who gave the directive or to tell the truth and save lives.
The Chinese doctor, Dr Li Wenliang, was too given a demonic directive and he chose to ignore it and sounded the alarm. He did the right thing!
For the record, Zimbabwe is in this economic and political hell-on-earth because Zimbabweans from all walks of life; doctors, engineers, teachers and even worse our judges and security professionals; have all played their part in helping Zanu PF turn this country into a de facto one-party dictatorship. We have all gone along to get along!
It is shocking that many of these, seemingly intelligent individuals, still have not waken up to the reality they are in hell; even now after 40 years!
Of course, all the doctors, nurses and other professional who are helping Zanu PF hide the truth about the spreading corona virus are brain dead!
Mugabe was a control freak! It is said that in all his 37 years in power, he never allowed a cabinet meeting to go ahead unless he was there to chair it! And his cabinet members were nothing more than grade one pupils in front of the overbearing Head Master.
ReplyDelete"Mose muri vakadzi vaMugabe!" (You are all Mugabe's concubines!" said Margaret Dongo disparagingly of the Zanu PF ministers and MPs! She was right!
Mugabe brainwashed his MPs and ministers to the point none of them were capable of coming up with one coherent thought of their own. That was the template that was repeated by the minister over those below them right down to the village head!
Of course, Dr Ngwenya and all his fellow doctors up and down the length and breadth of the country KNOW that corona virus is spreading in Zimbabwe. They have known this all along since they are the ones on the coal face, attending to these covid-19 sick patients on a daily basis.
In a normal and functional society every health institution must have a standing directive to report to the authorities any serious health threat. In other words, these doctors should be reporting all covid-19 suspected cases so they can be fully investigated and, if confirmed, followed up!
When the powers that be are not testing all suspicious cases, preferring to dismiss them as malaria or some such illness, and would not include even confirmed covid-19 cases. This should have been cause for alarm in a normal society. But not so in our brainwashed society where this is all "normal".
It would be interesting to find out whether the nurse who got the virus got it from a patient whom Dr Ngwenya KNEW was covid-19 positive and he examined the patient fully kitted but did not tell the rest of the health workers of the danger. And so the poor nurse attended to the patient with no PPE and got infected.
I agree, we are indeed a nation full of brain-dead scumbags!
"Am not at liberty to disclose the new covid-19 cases!" A new version of "I was following orders!"
Moments later, a truck with more than 20 riot police officers arrived to quell the protests.
ReplyDeleteThe news crew was blocked from talking to the protesters with officials demanding a letter from the Health ministry to allow for interviews.
“We have been instructed that no one talks to them without authority from the ministry,” one official said before the news team was ordered to leave.
Some of the protesters could however, be heard saying it was now even risky for them to remain in quarantine, mixing with others likely to have COVID-19.
The sheer incompetence by the regime in the handling of the corona virus is shocking. There are many things the regime should have done to make these quarantine centres habitable but has failed to do so. There is borehole water at Belvedere Teachers College, all the authorities should have done is install a tank so there is running water.
There are a number of blocks at the centre what would it have taken to allocate each group their own separate block. The returnees could have policed the arrangement themselves.
There is no doubt that the unhygienic conditions in these quarantine and isolation centres have turned them into covid-19 hotspots. The chaotic way the centres are being run means the only returnees who will walk out of these centres are those who have got the virus and recovered. The rest will be kept there till the catch the virus and leave in a coffin!
One can understand why the returnees want out of these hell-holes!
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa confirmed that four prisoners and two correctional services officers had tested positive.
ReplyDelete“We wish to advise the nation that we have recorded cases of Covid-19 in our prisons,” she said.
“We have three confirmed cases of Covid-19 at Beitbridge Prison, one is an officer and two are inmates. Also at Plumtree Prison, two inmates have been confirmed positive and one officer. No visitors are allowed at these correctional institutions.”
Once again, where are the local covid-19 cases?
THE Health Ministry Monday confirmed 26 more cases of Covid-19, bringing to 203, the number of people who have tested positive for the virus since outbreak in March this year.
ReplyDelete“Twenty (26) cases tested positive for Covid-19 today (Monday). These are returnees from South Africa (22), Botswana (3), and one local case who are all isolated. The local case is a contact of a known confirmed case,” the Health Ministry said in its daily Covid-19 update.
Harare now has 96 cases, Masvingo 16, Bulawayo 18, Matabeleland South 16, Mashonaland West 12, Midlands 10, Manicaland eight, Mashonaland East six with Matabeleland North and Mashonaland Central recording three cases each.
Mpilo Hospital reported last week that there were 4 covid-19 cases at that institution and yet up to now none of these cases have been included in the official total. We are sleep walking into this deadly pandemic!
No one is more blind than he who close their eyes and refuse to see what is before them!
ReplyDeleteSo you believe what the government is telling that there are no covid-19 cases outside the quarantine centres. If that was true, why is the regime not testing all the suspect cases in our hospitals and clinics up and down this land?
After 40 years of being robbed blind, of Zanu PF blatantly rigging the elections and now falsifying corona virus cases you still refuse to see the regime is cheating you!
“Dr Solwayo Ngwenya, if your own life depended on disclosing the truth on the spread of corona virus; would you disclose the cases then? How do you know you will not be one of the hundreds of thousands corona virus victims, whom the authority will record as malaria or some such illness?”
ReplyDeleteI would pay anything to hear Dr Ngwenya or anyone of his fellow Zimbabwean doctors answer that one! No doubt, if anyone of them ever thought his or her own life depended of telling the truth then they would tell the truth damn the regime’s directive.
The irony is the good doctor and many of his colleagues’ lives will depend on the truth be told and thus many of them will die of the covid-19 virus themselves before the year is out. It is no secret that many people in the health care service have died of the corona virus because they are at the coal face dealing with the corona virus patients on a daily basis. Zimbabwe’s health care service is in shambles and proper PPE is simply a luxury. Without doubt the death toll amongst the health care workers in Zimbabwe will therefore be very high.
When the history of one of Zimbabwe’s greatest human suffering and death brought about by this corona virus comes to be written the world will remember that hundreds of thousands of lives were lost unnecessarily to gratify a corrupt and tyrannical regime’s need to hide its blundering incompetence. History will also remember the thousands of doctors who played a major part helping the regime hide the truth by pretending to be deaf, dumb and blind!
The nation must erect a monument to the memory of all Zimbabwe’s doctors who have helped to bury the covid-19 truth. The inscription on the monument will read: “I swore to save life but I am not at liberty to tell the truth about corona virus to save lives!”
THREE more Zimbabweans have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 206 as of Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThe Ministry of Health announced in its daily Covid-19 update that the three cases were two returning citizens from Botswana and a local resident.
Here we go again! The World Health Organisation has said again and again “Test! Test! Test!” is absolutely essential to containing corona virus! And yet we are still not seeing any testing of suspected corona virus cases in our clinics and hospitals and hence the reason why the number of local new cases remains low.
Indeed, Mpilo Hospital reported last Wednesday that it had four new corona virus cases and yet, a week later, there is still no evidence to show these have been including in the official report!
SA is the one country that has been testing aggressively it has done nearly 10 tests for every 1 000, compared to 1 for 1 000 in Zimbabwe. SA has 37 525 confirmed cases and 792 deaths to Zimbabwe’s 206 cases and 4 deaths. SA has nearly 200 times as many cases and deaths as Zimbabwe and yet SA’s population is only 4 times that of Zimbabwe!
On paper Zimbabwe has contain covid-19 but that is a lie. Zimbabwe’s policy is to falsify the covid-19 data and pretend there is no virus in the local population only among the returnees. This has allowed the virus to spread far and wide in the local population. The truth will come out in the coming cold weather when the number of covid-19 cases and deaths are expected to soar!
Zanu PF blatantly rigged elections and rigging the covid-19 data is a piece of cake! The consequences of rigged elections is four decades of this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF regime and the price of rigging covid-19 data is human misery as hundreds of thousands will get the virus and many will die!
@ Tengenenge
ReplyDeleteRubbish! Most of the returnees are picking the virus in the quarantine and isolation centres because the condition there are unhygienic and chaotic. You only need one person to have the virus and after 21 days he/she would have passed it to others!
Besides, these people left the country out of desperation and to suggest they should not be allowed back is nonsense!
The story corona virus is spreading only amongst returnees is a false narrative. The virus is spreading far and wide among the locals it is just that Zanu PF is not testing locals!
ReplyDeleteSOLDIERS have been deployed to man Covid-19 quarantine centres around the country and also track down people who have escaped from the facilities, a senior government official confirmed.
ReplyDeleteAs of Saturday, a total of 148 returning residents had escaped from quarantine facilities, threatening the country's efforts to contain the pandemic.
The centres, which have often been described as detention camps because of the lack of basic social amenities like running water, were established around the country to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.
These centres are unhygienic and per se have become covid-19 hotspots.
It is shocking that the regime has the resources to hunt down the escaping returnees and to beef-up security on these centres but does not have the money to install tanks so there is something as basic as running water!
To the Zimbabweans in all the quarantine and isolation centres across the land; you must now take action to reduce the risk of catching covid-19 whilst you are in these centres. There is no one stopping you organising yourselves to stop keeping separate groups apart. Each group can then be divided into sub-groups which must too be kept apart. Extra care must be taken to thoroughly clean shared toilets, washing facilities, etc. Organise yourselves, whether you come out of these centres alive or in a coffin now depends on you, this Zanu PF government does not give a damn!
"The previous day, a few again were given their results and released. What is frustrating even more is that some of us have exceeded the 21 days of quarantine, but are still kept here, yet there are some who were released after six days yesterday,” returnee told News Day.
ReplyDelete"There seems to be no one in charge here because those that we thought were in charge are refusing any responsibility, saying those up the structures are the ones who should come and address us.
"How can they keep a person for over a week in a quarantine centre, yet new people are coming everyday? We are being mixed, those who have been tested and those that are arriving and not tested, increasing the risk on our lives.”
He further said an inmate who eventually served them food was later in the night whisked away by an ambulance after testing positive, adding that despite taking away positive inmates, test results for the rest of the inmates were not released and they continued interacting with each other.
the inmate said his colleagues were now disinfecting the premises since workers downed tools.
"Upon arrival at Belvedere teachers College, we were told that we would spend eight days and health officials would take our samples. No one came until the fifth day," the man said.
"We then asked the officials on the sixth day if we were going to be tested since we were about to leave the quarantine centre, that is when we were addressed by one Mrs Ngara, from Social Welfare department, that there were no test kits and we must wait for the Health ministry to provide the kits."
"Results of four of us came, they were positive, but were not removed from the group. We have been mixing and mingling with them," he said.
"You see that woman holding bags towards that toyota Noah vehicle, she was said to be CoVID-19 positive on Friday, but she is still with us. She was supposed to be taken out quickly after testing positive, but they did not."
He said his mother later bribed officials and forwarded their names for results to be released.
"I don't know how much she paid. Her results came out on Sunday and she went home and mine came today (yesterday), that is why I am leaving," he said.
We have seen this coming and did nothing then and we are still doing nothing about it now!
“First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”
by Martin Niemoller
Those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over again. The nation did not speak out against the unhygienic condition returnees were being subjected to and so the quarantine centres became the petri dishes where corona virus was allowed to spread amongst the returnees before they were release to infect us all. And we must wait to see just how far the virus has spread – the cold weather is now upon us, it will not be long before the covid-19 cases start to soar!
"ZADHR received reports that the girls High quarantine centre, where a group of about 96 returnees including pregnant women and an infant who were quarantined at Harare Polytechnic College on May 10, 2020 and later moved to girls High School in Harare for further quarantining, upon arrival at
ReplyDeleteHarare Polytechnic College were not tested despite some individuals clearly exhibiting flu-like symptoms," the doctors said.
"The returnees were also not tested upon arrival at girls High School until Sunday, May 24, 2020 when they were finally tested.
"When returnees were finally tested on May 24, 2020, most of them were not exhibiting signs or symptoms of illness."
The doctors added: "Results returned four days later on May 28, 2020. At least, 35 of the returnees had tested positive to COVID-19 and were taken to Wilkins Hospital. Chinhoyi quarantine facility has also reported the absence of testing."
ZADHR said it was concerned about reports that about 150 returnees were released from a gweru facility four days ahead of schedule on May 24, 2020, after returnees threatened to protest against poor living conditions.
The doctors said they had noted with concern the acquisition, at high prices, of COVID-19-related equipment and consumables by the government, adding "the recent report that government extended a US$1 million tender to Drax International without going to tender is a cause for concern".
"We urge the ministry to adhere to State procurement regulations to enhance public trust and confidence in an environment where citizens are concerned with individuals profiteering from the crisis through abuse of office," ZADHR said.
The frontline workers said they had received reports over the past two weeks of shortages of screening and test kits at quarantine centres in Harare, gweru, Chinhoyi and Victoria Falls and in some cases returnees being asked to pay for testing costs ranging from US$25 to US$65 per test
It appears the 28 May 35 covid-19 positive cases from Girls High were never included in the official report as 17 were reported that day and 11 the next. Zimbabwe has not been testing for local infection and concentrating on testing returnees instead. But even then it is also clear the regime has not reported all covid-19 positive cases amongst the returnees.
It is very disappointing that the country’s medical professionals, on the coal face of this pandemic, have by and large turned a blind eye to this regime’s failure to not only contain covid-19 but to inform the people of the spreading virus.
THE controversy surrounding the recent awarding of a US$1 million procurement contract without going to tender to Drax International, whose beneficial owner has close ties with President Emmerson Mnangagwa's son Collins, is indicative of rampant corruption which is pervasive in government circles being fuelled by the political elite.
ReplyDeleteDrax, whose beneficial owner is Delish Nguwaya, has no proven track record in the procurement of essential medical goods. Nguwaya's past is marred with multiple arrests.
In April, Nguwaya donated drugs worth US$200 000 in response to the government's appeal for assistance as Mnangagwa's cashstrapped administration battled to mobilise funds to tackle the raging Covid-19 pandemic which has claimed four lives in Zimbabwe. Mnangagwa received the donation at State House.
The shadowy firm, whose jurisdiction of incorporation is shrouded in mystery, inked deals worth US$60 million to supply drugs to National Pharmaceuticals (NatPharm) last year. Ironically, the firm, which was on the verge of supplying the government with medical equipment at inflated prices before the tender was revoked, claims to be registered in an international tax haven, Dubai.
The tender scandal, which has lifted the lid on the opaque public procurement process, sharply contradicts Mnangagwa's mantra that his administration is committed to tackling graft as well as attracting foreign investment.
Two years ago, Mnangagwa emerged victorious from a contested poll, acknowledging in his inauguration speech that the cancerous vice which flourished during former president Robert Mugabe's 37-year rule was hindering efforts to revive Zimbabwe's floundering economy.
He pledged that his administration would fight sleaze, "without fear or favour".
"We must as a society encourage and inculcate the culture of hard, honest work. The prosecution of perpetrators of corruption will be carried out without fear or favour," Mnangagwa spoke emphatically as he delivered his inauguration speech on August 28, 2018.
However, recent reports by the AuditorGeneral as well as the irregular awarding of tenders to associates of the political elite show that Zimbabwe's fight against sleaze is more bark than bite.
Without any landmark corruption case prosecuted so far, Mnangagwa's calls to curtail sleaze, particularly by an elite political syndicate, sound hollow and insincere.
Even Western countries initially charmed by Mnangagwa's rhetoric of a new dispensation have become disenchanted as the septuagenarian's declarations have not been matched by action.
Political analyst Maxwell Saungweme, drawing similarities between Mnangagwa's approach to tackle corruption and that of his predecessor, contends that the new dispensation is just old wine in new bottle skins.
During very difficult times such as these corona virus times everyone is being forced to manage their resources very, very careful. It is therefore no surprise that Zimbabwe is one of the developing countries that has received the least amount of aid per capita. Who would want to give aid to a country knowing the aid will be looted to bankroll the lavish lifestyles of the ruling elite.
There is no doubt that Zanu PF is holding the nation to ransom and has done so forb the last 40 years. It is for the people to demand change or be dragged deeper and deeper into despair!
SOME 15 more returning citizens Thursday tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 237, the Health Ministry has said.
ReplyDeleteOn Wednesday, there were 222 confirmed cases with 16 cases of South African returnees testing positive on the day.
“Fifteen cases tested positive for Covid-19 today (Thursday). These are all returnees from South Africa and are all isolated,” The Health Ministry said in its daily Covid-19 update.
Harare now has a total of 97 confirmed cases followed by Matabeleland South with 40. Bulawayo has 18, Manicaland 8, Mashonaland Central 3, Mashonaland East 3, Mashonaland West 12, Midlands 13, Masvingo 37, and Matabeleland North 3.
We are to believe that covid-19 is only confined to quarantine centres and we have nothing to worry about. The truth is the regime is not testing at all among the locals and so we are just sailing blind.
SA whose testing regime is not the best but is doing 10 times per capita more test than Zimbabwe. SA has 43 434 confirmed cases and 908 deaths. SA’s population is 60 million compared to Zimbabwe’s 16 million. So, the more realistic figures for Zimbabwe should be 10 858 confirmed cases and 227 deaths.
SA has handled its corona virus challenge much, much better than Zimbabwe and it has poured more human and material resources and, no doubt, it is all going to show in the death toll!
I feel like someone who knows the mother of all storms is coming and are in its path of the storm and has nowhere to hide.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care has confirmed that 28 more cases tested positive for Covid-19 bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 265 with 31 recoveries, 202 active and four deaths since the onset of the outbreak on March 20, 2020.
ReplyDeleteThe new cases are all returnees from South Africa and are all isolated.
The Quarantine centres are now covid-19 hotspots and we have seen it all coming but have done nothing about it!
There is a heavy price to be paid for our failure to ensure government was doing everything possible contain corona virus. For 40 years now, we have allowed Zanu PF thugs to do as they pleased and have paid dearly for our laissez-faire approach but this time, with covid-19 pandemic to deal with, the price has shot up considerably. Many, many human lives will be lost!
SCHOOLS are not ready to reopen for the second term as Covid-19 cases continue to surge in the country, Members of Parliament said Thursday.
ReplyDeleteMPs felt the recent announcement by Education Minister Cain Mathema that schools would reopen in phases starting with final examinations classes this June, was a costly experiment with the lives of children
The number of confirmed cases have gone up from 63 on 26 May to 265 today 5 June but only 12 out the 202 are local the rest are returnees. To deny a generation of a whole academic year's education because 12 local people out of 16 million got corona virus is irresponsible, to say the least.
Many people fear that the Ministry of Health and Child Care's reports are totally meaningless because government is testing returnees and is hardly covid-19 suspect cases in the communities. If these MPs were wide awake then they should have asked how many people with flu-like in our clinics and hospitals have been tested for covid-19 in the month?
Our problem here is that we not only have an corrupt and incompetent cabinet but an equal corrupt and utterly useless parliament. A nightmare!
AT the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis, we warned the nation that the next big arena of corruption would be the procurement processes surrounding murky tenders in the pandemic response effort.
ReplyDeleteAs if prophetically, this has come to pass. Corruption in Zimbabwe follows a well-established pattern. Citizens watch helplessly as a strong stench of impunity suffocates everyone in its wake. There is a sense that graft has become the defining ethos of public administration in this country.
Tenders are not the only concern. Although officials are generally willing to provide a list of Covid-19 donations, they are reluctant to reveal the real beneficiaries of those goods. Can anyone guarantee that none of the donated masks, gloves and other items of personal protective equipment have not landed on the parallel market where some operators are inflating prices and making a killing?
It is very true that we have once again watched the corruption but only because we have chosen to be helpless. There is a heavy price to be paid for doing nothing to end the corruption; not only have lost the donated stuff but worse still we have driven the donors away. Donors are sick and tired of seeing their donated stuff wasted or enriching the few ruling elite.
The United States government has written to the World Bank (WB) calling for strict conditions to be attached to any Covid-19 relief funding for Zimbabwe in light of the country's shoddy record in administering such resources.
ReplyDeleteIn a letter dated June 03 to World Bank Group president David Malpass, chairperson of the foreign relations committee in the US senate, James Risch says that strict accountability and transparency measures are needed given Zimbabwe's corruption record.
Citing the controversial command agriculture programme as an example of government corruption, Risch says any package mobilised for Zimbabwe must ‘incorporate independent Zimbabwean civil society and community voices.'
"These are needed given the need for significant reform of most state institutions in Zimbabwe, pervasive corruption and impunity, and the demonstrated disinterest of the Government of Zimbabwe in the wellbeing of its citizens," reads part of the letter which was copied to secretary of state Michael Pompeo and secretary of the treasury Steven Mnuchin.
He claimed that the government had a sordid history of abusing aid money for patronage and self-enrichment.
It is crying shame that for 40 years and counting the people of Zimbabwe have clearly failed to do something to end this pervasive culture of corruption and impunity. Of course, we deserve this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its entourage of equally corrupt and useless opposition parties!
A TOTAL of 28 returning citizens from neighbouring South Africa tested positive for Covid-19 Friday bringing the number of confirmed cases to 265, Information Ministry secretary Nick Mangwana has confirmed.
ReplyDelete“We have 28 new cases. All from South Africa. All now isolated,” he said Friday night.
Corona virus is present in the community and these reports of only returnees have the virus is nonsense. Zimbabwe is not carrying out any tests in the community and it does not have the full picture!
The hospital was also fumigated and disinfected for the deadly virus which can live for several hours or even days in certain environments. Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer Dr Solwayo Ngwenya said out of more than 2 000 health workers at the facility, 197 were placed in self-isolation.
ReplyDeleteHe commended the health workers for their commitment even during difficult times.
“This resulted in 197 health workers going in self-isolation at their homes including the nurse who was asymptomatic. So far all of them have tested negative for the virus. They are in self-isolation for 14 days and are supposed to complete process on Thursday. I guess we can say we were very lucky to have escaped this one,” said Dr Ngwenya.
It is heartening to know that there was a concerted enough to trace all the health care workers who had been in conduct with the 4 covid-19 cases. But was the same concerted effort made to trace the ordinary people too had been in conduct with the four individuals?
The failure to carryout thorough testing, tracking and tracing among the Zimbabwe public is a matter of public record. There is no doubt that covid-19 is in the community and that it is spreading far and wide. The country is going to pay dearly for this foolishness as many more people will get the virus and many will die.
South African pupils have gone back to school with Monday being the official first day of class for grades 7 and 12.
ReplyDeleteThe classes resume when the South African department of Health announced that the death toll from Coronavirus has risen to 998 as of Sunday evening.
In Zimbabwe there are 265 confirmed cases of covid-19 and the overwhelming majority of these cases are individuals who had recently returned from abroad. Based on these figures, there is no reason why schools and other activities have not been along to restart a long time ago.
Schools have not reopened because the available data does not speak of how bad the corona virus situation is in Zimbabwe; the authorities have not been testing, tracking and tracing among the ordinary people as diligently as they should. School are set to reopen next week and we still have no idea how bad the corona virus situation is in the country. We are just shooting in the dark!
The unhygienic conditions in most of our quarantine centres have turned them into covod-19 hotspots. Most of our schools are just as unhygienic and so they are the next covid-19 hotspots!
Three (3) cases tested positive for COVID-I9 today. These are returnees from South Africa (2). South Sudan (1) and are all isolated.
ReplyDeleteToday 107 RDT screening tests and 153 PCR diagnostic tests were done. The cumulative number of tests done to date is 52 985 131 478 RDT and 21 507 PCR).
To date the total number of confirmed cases is 282: recovered 34, active cases 244 and 4 deaths, since the onset of the outbreak on 20 March 2020.-Health Ministry.
Zanu PF is only testing returnees for covid-19! Without testing suspected cases in the rest of the community such as clinic and hospital patients with corona virus like symptoms the country will not know if corona virus is spreading in the rest of the population.
If the regime was so cocksure there is no corona virus in the population then why has it imposed the nationwide lockdown?
There is talk of reopening the schools in the next two weeks. On what basis is this decision based since no test have been carried out in the community.
Without testing all corona virus decision are just shooting in the dark – a very dangerous thing to do especial when there are hundreds of thousands of lives at stake here!
Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has declared the country “coronavirus-free” thanks to prayers by citizens.
ReplyDelete“The corona disease has been eliminated thanks to God,” Magufuli told worshippers in a church in the capital, Dodoma.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has expressed concern over the government’s strategy on Covid-19.
The government has stopped publishing data on the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
If Tanzania is indeed free of the virus, then why has government stopped testing for corona virus and making the rests public!!!!!
Here is another despot hiding his incompetence by abusing his power and authority to hide the truth!
Zimbabwe's covid-19 cases have jumped from 63 on 26 May to 282 today. 12 of these are locals and the rest are returnees. There is clearly no corona virus spreading amoung the local communities, at least that is what the government reports would suggest.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is corona virus is spreading amoung the locals; we do not know anything about it but only because government has not been testing locals. The number of covid-19 cases amongst returnees are going up and so too are the cases amongst the locals, we will know about the later as more and more people fill our hospitals and clinics and grave yards!
Today marked the phased reopening of schools for the first time in more 2 months.It had been the much anticipated development as students were losing out on their academic progress.The address was made by the Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga yesterday who revealed that more than 95% of schools were ready to accept the grade 7 and 12 country wide.
ReplyDeleteHowever ,in the midst of celebrating the opening of schools ,the president of South Africa Mr C. Ramaphosa delivered some unpleasant and uncomfortable update for the nation ,when he released a media statement informing about the state of Covid-19 in the country.
The President started the media statement by indicating that most people had noticed that the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in South Africa had been rising at a faster rate ,with more than half of all cases since the start of the outbreak being recorded in the previous two weeks.
The President would go on to drop a bomb that is likely to make South Africa panic since schools reopened just today. Ramaphosa said that during the course of this week, there is an expected rise in the total number of cases which will pass the 50,000 and that Mzansi will likely to reach the 1000 death mark from this pandemic.
He went on and said that just like many South Africans, he too have worried as he watches the figures rising. Ramaphosa said that the figures are broadly in line with what had been projected, but indicated that there was and difference between looking at a graph on a piece of paper and seeing real people becoming infected, getting ill and dying.
Ramaphosa however drew some kind of comfort from the fact that the lockdown had achieved its objective of delaying the spread of the virus so that the country would have time to prepare the health facilities and interventions for the expected rise in infections.
History will judge President Ramamposa for failing to stop contain the corona virus by failing to introduce strict quarantine measures for all arrivals and, once the virus was in the country, for failing to mount an effective test, track and trace regime. The one redeeming thing he did was that he has not tried to falsify the seriousness of the outbreak.
Leaders like Mnangagwa have not only failed to contain the virus but have made the situation worse by telling the nation lies about the virus. Public ignorance of the seriousness of corona virus has only helped it spread far and wide!
The government has announced the reopening of schools in Zimbabwe will be on the 28th of July 2020. The dates have been moved from the 29th of June to the 28th of July 2020. The government also announced that June exams will still be held from the 29th of June to the 22nd of July 2020.
ReplyDeleteIF and it is a big if, government is happy with its own covid-19 figure and has the virus under control then why is it not reopening schools in three weeks as originally announced? Why delay by another four weeks?
There are many common sense things Zimbabwe has not done but top on that list are these:
1) Zimbabwe has not been testing all suspected covid-19 cases to establish how many people out there have the virus.
2) Everyone should live in hygienic condition and not have to share the toilet and washing facilities with no more than five others. Everyone must have access to clean running wash so they can wash their hands regularly. All public places must be deep cleaned regularly especially if someone with the covid-19 has been in the area.
3) Zimbabwe must establish a system to test, track and trace any covid-19 outbreak so the authorities can respond quickly to contain it. Zimbabwe cannot afford just shooting in the dark!
The government has postponed the reopening of schools from 29 June to 28 July to allow education and treasury authorities to mobilise for the provision of adequate resources.
ReplyDeleteIf Zimbabwe's covid-19 stats are to be believed then we are the only country in the whole world that closed schools for half a year with less than 20 confirmed local covid-19 infections and 4 deaths out of a population of 16 million!
The initial decision was to reopen schools on 29 June was made 4 weeks before the opening date and now the re-opening is being delayed by 4 more weeks "to mobilise"! Shocking!