Detail matter! Zanu PF has
committed murder, literally and metaphorically, again and again but has got
away with it time and time again because the Zimbabwean people have either failed
to notice, which has happened all too often, or did not have the courage and
foresight to hold the regime to account.
“For the period 9 June 2020 when
the centre opened up to 25 July 2020, 60 Covid-19 positive patients have been
admitted,” authorities at Parirenyatwa Hospital have said, according to a New
Zimbabwe report.
“For the period under review, 70
staff members have tested positive for Covid-19, of which 64 are from
non-Covid-19 areas while 6 work directly in the Covid Centre.”
Authorities have been “urging for
the mandatory testing of all patients for the dreaded disease before admission
into the government health facility.”
The need to test all patients,
diseased and frontline workers of corona virus infection is central in the
fight to contain the virus. “Test, trace and track!” the World Health
Organisation has advised again and again and again ever since the declaration
of covid-19 as a pandemic. It therefore beggars belief that even this late in
the covid-19 storm even Zimbabwe’s principal referral hospitals are not
carrying out even the most basic screening tests.
Health professionals are having
to urge the powers that be to make testing mandatory! Meanwhile 64 health care workers
assigned to non-covid-19 areas have test
positive of the dread virus (God only knows how many patients in the
non-covid-19 area have the virus too); making a mockery of segregation.
“We have recorded 8 deaths out of
60 patents who were admitted in the red zone,” continues the Hospital statement.
“Of the bodies that were brought
in dead, 13 tested positive for Covid-19.”
According to the Ministry of
Health and Child Care Zimbabwe has had a total of 34 corona virus deaths and
yet Parirenyatwa Hospital alone has had 21 covid-19 deaths. There is no doubt
that the officials are under reporting the corona virus cases and deaths!
There is heavy human traffic
between Zimbabwe and South Africa and hence it is no surprise that most of the
reported covid-19 cases in Zimbabwe are returnees from SA. And so the real, as
contrast to the contrived official, number of covid-19 cases in Zimbabwe will ¼
of that of SA (given Zimbabwe’s population is ¼ that of SA).
According to the John Hopkins
report SA has 445 433 confirmed cases and 6 769 death. Zimbabwe real figure should
be 111 000 cases and 1 600 deaths compared to the contrived official figure of
2 512 cases and 34 deaths.
There is no doubt that by under
reporting the corona virus cases many, many people will get the virus and many
will die because they did not know the prevalence of the virus and so never
took any precaution. And, worst of all, they were deliberately kept in the dark
because the powers that be did not test, trace and track as aggressively as
they should have done and has under reported the cases.
Of course, this Zanu PF government
has deliberately under reported the seriousness of the covid-19 virus in
Zimbabwe to earn itself brownie points as having contained the virus. The real
covid-19 figures which are emerging, there must be a full judiciary inquiry to
establish the full story, shows that blundering attempt to hide the truth has
only helped the corona virus spread.
The number of corona virus cases
and deaths have been steadily rising these last three weeks, the virus storm
has just broken and the worst is yet to come. Parirenyatwa Hospital management’s
demand for mandatory testing still makes a lot of sense, careful screening is required
now more than ever before.
We must Zanu PF to account for having
failed to institute mandatory testing, tracing and tracking to date and making
sure this is done from now on. How well or badly Zimbabwe performs throughout
these difficult covid-19 times will depend on how well we, the people, respond
to the challenge of good governance, to detail.
The Greeks are credited for devising democracy, a government by the people for the people, as a system of government. They were also smart enough to realise democracy will not work unless the people are well educated and so they laid great emphasis on freedom of expression and association and the pursuit of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteGreece’s golden age was one hundred years or so before the Greek Philosopher Socrates and two hundred years or so after his death in 399 BC when democracy ruled the roost.
As much as Mnangagwa would want to claim Zimbabwe is a healthy and functioning multi-party democracy; it is no such thing. Both Mnangagwa, the opposition and most of the Zimbabwe electorate have no clue what constitutes a free, fair and credible elections. Zanu PF has usurped the people’s freedoms, rights and power to hold the politicians to account. Indeed, it is the politicians who have enjoy absolute power over the people. It is the tail that is wagging the dog!
You are right; it is for the people of Zimbabwe “to hold this Zanu PF regime to account for failing to make covid-19 testing, tracing and tracking mandatory and to demand that testing is mandatory from now on.” This would be expected if Zimbabwe was a healthy and functioning democracy. Sadly, it is not! The people are not informed and so do not understand the importance of testing and, the few who do understand, lack the foresight to hold the regime to account.
There is no hunger for knowledge among our people, a situation the politicians from both sides of the political divide have exploited for their selfish gain. Politicians do not like to be held to democratic account and so they have encouraged the people to learn nothing beyond the usual meaningless slogans.
Both Zanu PF and MDC have resisted all efforts to educate the masses and without an enlightened electorate democracy in Zimbabwe will remain a mirage.
The Zanu PF government has failed to test as aggressively as it should resulting in the under reporting the corona virus cases in the country, by as much as 50 times. This has contributed to the spread of the virus. The regime is now sending test teams into local community; all too little too late! greatly to the spread of the virus!
ReplyDeleteLuveve Constituency MP Mrs Stella Ndlovu, whose area covers Cowdray Park, said she believes people were violating lockdown measures due to the need to eke a living. She encouraged those without a reason for going out to stay at home as there were more chances of contracting Covid-19 outdoors.
"But I also believe that we are not conducting comprehensive Covid-19 testing as a country and a city. If we do extensive mass testing it might emerge that there are more positive patients even in suburbs that have not been identified as hotspots," she said.
Parliament is the right place to raise this concern, why has she failed to do so?
Of the new cases, 189 are from local transmission and only three are returnees.
ReplyDelete"As at July 27, 2020, Zimbabwe had 2 704 confirmed cases, including 542 recoveries and 36 deaths. Of the new cases recorded, 113 were recorded in Harare while 52 were recorded in Bulawayo province," reads the statement.
Bulawayo has a cumulative of 716 cases and 16 deaths, Matabeleland South 369 with one death while Matabeleland North has 42 confirmed cases and two deaths.
Zimbabwe is not testing as aggressively as it should and this explans why the government has stopped telling how many tests it is doing a day. This is helping the regime hide the truth on corona virus but what is really important is the moves helps the virus spread!
The spread of the corona virus will be attributed to many things, some to acts of God others to human fault, to government fault and to individual fault, easily avoidable and impossible, etc. In Zimbabwe many people will have the virus because of the deliberate acts by the state to under report the corona virus cases for the sake of earning a few brownie points as having had few cases. This is irresponsible, government has duty of care to the people to inform them on the true situation so the individual take the necessary precautions.
ReplyDeleteI really hope that one of these fine days those responsible for denying the people the truth on covid-19 will be held to account for the unnecessary suffering and deaths they caused.