As of today 30 August 2020 Zimbabwe had 6 new cases of covid-19 bring the total of confirmed cases to 6 412. There have bee zero deaths and so the total death rate remains at 196.
“Much fewer tests (602) done today (But on a positive note positivity for today was 1%)” Ministry of Health and Child Care stated in its official report.
The Ministry of Health’s recent reports have left out how many tests were being carried out, no doubt aware Zimbabwe was not doing anywhere near enough testing to for the official reported cases and deaths to be anywhere close to the reality on the ground. And, most important of all, by failing to test and identifying those with the virus and putting them into isolation only means there are many out there spreading the virus far and wide!
In mid April when the country had 25 or so confirmed covid-19 cases and 3 deaths government promised to ramp up the testing, tracing and tracking to 1 000 test a day. The increased tests would ensure corona virus frontline workers like health care workers would be tested regularly (at least once a week given most have no PPE) and all those with covid-19 like symptoms will be tested too.
By the beginning of July when the official confirmed cases had soared to 591 cases and 7 deaths the nation was assure the testing regime was to go up a gear. And yet today with the number of official confirmed cases at 6 412 the country is still performing only 602 tests per day!
With so few daily tests it is no wonder that many health care workers in Zimbabwe are yet to be tested. The only reason many, many people with all the covid-19 symptoms, some of them have since died, are not included in the official covid-19 cases and deaths, is because they have never been tested.
The Ministry of Health report did not say how many tests in total Zimbabwe have done to date, the last time that figure was given was end of July and it was 145 000 tests. SA, our neighbour with comparable covid-19 figures, carried out 3 million tests. Zimbabwe, with 1/4 the population, should have done 750 000 tests to keep pace with SA but had only done 1/5 or 20%!
To the end of July SA had 471 000 confirmed cases and a 1/4 of that means Zimbabwe had 117 000 confirmed cases compared to the 2 817 official confirmed cases. In other words out of every one tested positive and put into isolation there are 42 others who are positive and should be in isolation but are instead spreading the virus far and wide!
Zanu PF has been boasting already that the regime has done a stupendous job of containing the corona virus given the country’s per capita covid-19 confirmed cases and deaths remain one of the lowest in the world! A truly amazing achievement given Zimbabwe’s economy was, at the outbreak of the pandemic, in a total mess and still is today and so too was its health care services.
It is already becoming crystal clear that Zimbabwe’s official corona virus figures are not just an error but a deliberate and calculated lie. And, worst of all, a foolish lie as it has only resulted in the country having even more corona virus cases and deaths as the deliberate act of falsifying the figures meant the nation failed to take even the most common sense measures to contain the virus!
“Much fewer tests (602) done today!” Indeed, that is the heart and soul of Zanu PF’s corona virus strategy is to keep the official covid-19 cases and deaths low by doing as few confirmatory tests as the regime can get away with. The fewer the tests the lower the confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths and the greater the party’s claim to having done a great job containing the pandemic!
Zanu PF has completely ignored what the real covid-19 cases and deaths on the ground and does not care that the party’s obsession with falsifying the covid-19 situation is helping the virus spread. To discourage anyone publishing the real covid-19 figures as contrast to the fictitious official figures, the regime has already passed a law making it a criminal offence punishable by a 20 year jail term!
As a people, we Zimbabweans and to some extent the rest of Africans, have never been masters of our own destiny. We have been content to be passengers but not the capital of the ship. For one to be the captain of the ship, one must master many things; how to sail the ship, how to read the maps so you know where you are and where you are going, etc., etc.
ReplyDeleteBefore independence, we were passengers on the ship where the white colonialists were the masters. We were totally at the white colonialists’ mercy and they exploited and oppressed us.
The fight for freedom, justice and human dignity was heart felt but not equally shared by all blacks especially our black leaders. Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF cronies had other ideas, they wanted to remove the white colonial masters but only to replace them as the new masters.
A people who would “suffer and bury their died blissfully oblivious of the reality and madness going on around them” made it easy for the white colonialists and now the Zanu PF thugs to be masters and do as they pleased.
So people have argued that back in 1980, Zimbabweans were not ready to be masters of our own destiny. 40 years latter, it is sad to note that we are still not ready.
Even if this Zanu PF dictatorship was to fall as is already happening. The party is imploding, it is rotten to the core, the dog-eat-dog factional fighting has each one fighting everyone else for dear life; the fighting will continue until there is no one left standing. The Zanu PF dictatorship will be replace by a one mediocre regime after another, at best, otherwise it will be yet another corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical dictatorship.
A healthy and functioning democracy demands a knowledgeable and diligent electorate, Zimbabweans are not anywhere near there yet - assuming they will ever get there!
@ Nomazulu
ReplyDelete“The people of Zimbabwe are in total disarray. We really do not know who to trust now. Who is demonstrating to get his/her cause realized? Who is demonstrating clandestinely to get press attention for his/her cause? Does the USA embassy know that Pastor Mawarire was given a false asylum in America? We are really in muddy waters and we really do not know how we are going to rid ourselves of Zanu PF. As for Pastor Mawarire, I can say your God will deal with you. We have no words to describe your sinful intentions towards the nation. God will deal with you accordingly and will execute HIS/HER justice upon you. But you must remember always there is a special place in hell for people like you who sell the nation for thirty pieces of silver.”
The Zanu PF ruling elite have amassed so much wealth, at the expense of the majority now languishing in abject poverty, they are now using the wealth to corrupt anyone they want to do their dirty work of keeping them in power at all cost. State institutions like Army, Police, CIO, ZEC, etc. are all there to keep Zanu PF in power at all cost as they are all but Zanu PF departments in all but name.
Zimbabwe’s political system is rotten to the core and we need to completely overhaul the system. We need a new GNU that will implement the raft of democratic reforms that the 2008 to 2013 GNU should have implemented but failed to implement even one reform because Mugabe bribe Tsvangirai and company.
Zanu PF and MDC leaders cannot be trusted to play any role in the new GNU because they are part of the rot and therefore cannot be part of the solution too! Zanu PF will never reform itself out of office. Mark my words, Zanu PF will try to corrupt whoever is appointed in the new GNU; we will need to be very diligent!
The country is reportedly running out of material like chemicals and containers to put specimen used when testing for COVID-19, the Chronicle reports.
ReplyDeleteThis was revealed in the Ministry of Health and Child Care weekly Covid-19 report which states that the country needs 15 000 viral transport media and 15 000 PCR reagents every month but only 10 % of stocks is available at the moment.
The Ministry’s report shows that there is a low supply of GeneXpert cartridges which will not last for a month. Part of the report that speaks about the decline in testing due to the shortages reads:
Testing was decentralised to improve on the turnaround time but frequent shortages of testing kits and reagents have slowed down the progress made. The number of PCR tests done decreased with average tests for the week standing at 1 240 as compared to 1 946 from the previous week. We also reported a decrease in the positives this week (890) as compared from the previous week (2 280)
The country in the period between 22 to 28 August recorded an average of 81 cases per day, and many of them are according to the Ministry local transmissions and some of them have unknown sources of infection.
VP Chiwenga was appointed Minister of Health with all the usual fanfare, singing and dancing. The man himself joining in with his usual grandstanding and silver-back gorilla posturing.
”Things will never be the same again. We are restructuring and reforming our health delivery system. We want to rebuild the structures from village to referral level. Things will never be the same again, but we must work together," said VP Chiwenga.
"We have already identified the problems and we do not want a repeat of what was happening before.”
That was a month ago and now it turns out the country is failed to do even the simplest and cheapest of tasks - testing - in our fight to contain the corona virus. So what was all the kerfuffle about!
Chiwenga is just a buffoon who has been promoted way above his level of competency.
Corona virus is the greatest challenge the world has faced in this generation and all nations across the earth without exception are being tested. It is bad enough to have buffoon in government at the best of time but it is the worst curse ever to have such a government at such times as now!
Hundreds of thousands of lives are going to be lost unnecessarily just because we have buffoons in office. A heavy price to pay for buffoonery!
Corona virus pandemic constitute the biggest health and economic threat of our generation. No nation have been spared and tested. Nations with strong economies, health care services and good governance have, nonetheless, felt the strain.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe had the great misfortune of having its economy in total meltdown, an all but collapsed health care service and a corrupt and incompetent government at the on set of the pandemic; the country was always going to fare much, much worse than the other nation.
Where other nations catch a cold, in Africa people die. Corona virus will probably kill up to 1% of the population in the developed countries in Africa it will probably kill ten times that, 10%.
The prospect of having these Zanu PF buffoons in power throughout the corona virus period is certain to make the tragic situation into a catastrophe of Biblical proportion. The corona virus death rate in Zimbabwe will probable soar to 15% or even 20%!
Zimbabwe has managed to keep its official covid-19 death rate very low by making sure the country did as few covid-19 tests as possible. No one else would believe the lie that only 196 people have died of covid-19 in Zimbabwe but clearly Zimbabweans themselves do believe the lie!
No doubt 20% will die of the virus and the official record will claim 0.2% died and the people will still believe it. How a whole nation can be so blissfully stupid is a real mystery!
Cry, the beloved country!
"Covid 19 deaths rose to 202" reported the Herald.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe's confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths have remained low because the country has not been testing. The Ministry of Health has since admitted that it is running out of the test chemicals. Zanu PF's strategy is to make sure Zimbabwe has one of the lowest number of corona virus cases and deaths per capita in the world not because it saved the people from catching the virus but rather by making sure the country tested and confirmed only a few.
The shock is that many Zimbabweans actually believe the country's official covid-19 figures!
Schools reopen on September 28 for Zimsec examination classes with the exams starting on December 1, Cabinet decided yesterday.
ReplyDeleteCambridge examination classes can start a fortnight earlier, on September 14, with Cambridge examination dates being earlier as they are set internationally by a British-based board.
Zimbabwe does not have a testing regime to ensure it is able to test and quickly isolate anyone who gets the virus. Most schools in Zimbabwe do not have good hygienic conditions and social distancing is not easy to achieve. It is therefore for schools to become corona virus hotspots.
If Zanu PF has the resources to equip and pay the wages of a bloated Army, Police and CIO it must have the money to deploy and buy the test kits to do the necessary tests to ensure schools do not become corona virus hotspots.
It is about time this regime got its priorities right!
VICE PRESIDENT Constantino Chiwenga, who doubles as the country’s health minister, failed to show up to take questions from backbenchers during parliament’s question and answer session on Wednesday as Covid-19 takes its toll on parliamentarians.
ReplyDeleteSpeaker Jacob Mudenda told the House that from among cabinet ministers who gave apologies, he did not see the health minister’s apology for not coming to parliament.
The Speaker revealed in the House of Assembly that “quite a number of MPs and two staff members had this week tested positive to Covid-19”.
He did not name the legislators.
However, VP Chiwenga, appointed to add impetus to national efforts to contain the Covid-19 menace and also try to end a prolonged strike by government hospital nurses, decided to dodge the crucial session.
Said Mudenda, “l did not see any communication from Health minister.”
Chiwenga replaced Obadiah Moyo who was in charge of the portfolio prior to his arrest on abuse of office charges linked to a Covid-19 kit procurement scandal.
The thing about corona virus is that it does not discriminate, the ruling elite and povo alike have all succumb to the virus. No doubt the government has seen the need to test, trace, and track when it comes to the ruling elite.
Last week everyone at Munhumutapa Building, housing Mnangagwa’s Office, were tested and 80 were found to have the virus. The week before that everyone at Zanu PF HQ was tested and 26 had the virus. And now we hear some MPs and two parliament workers tested positive of the virus.
Very few of these people who test positive are included in the official confirmed cases; Zimbabwe’s strategy is to have one of the lowest per capita corona virus cases and deaths in the world by falsifying the record! This is a regime that has rigged elections, reported a bumper harvest when the nation is starving, etc.; cheating comes as second nature to Zanu PF!
VP Chiwenga has commandeered boxes and boxes of the space suit PPE he was seen wearing last time he visited St Mary’s Hospital and yet he is still scarred of showing up in parliament with all these reports of MPs, Zanu PF workers, etc. covid-19 positive. Of course, he has done nothing to end the nurses’ strike, increase the tests, equip health care workers with PPE, etc., etc.
The corona virus pandemic is the greatest challenge of our generation and what a time to have a buffoon like Chiwenga as Minister of Health!
India reported another record daily jump of 83,883 coronavirus infections on Thursday, taking its tally to 3.85 million, just 100,000 behind Brazil, the world’s second most affected nation, Indian health ministry data showed.
ReplyDeleteAsia’s worst-hit country has been posting the world’s largest daily caseload every day for almost a month, although deaths remain relatively low.
The ministry said 1,043 people died from COVID-19, taking the toll to 67,376.
India is one of the countries in the world that has been very slow in taking up the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) clarion call of “Test! TEST! TEST!!!!”
India has since ramped up its testing and is doing 1 million tests a day. History will show that by testing more aggressively the country will increase the number of confirmed cases by most important of all save many lives as all those who test positive are now going into isolation and thus significantly reduce the spread of the virus.
Zimbabwe is one of the country that has not heeded WHO’s advice on testing. Indeed, the Zanu PF government’s strategy is to keep the country’s confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths as low as possible by coming up with all manner of excuses why it is not testing and even deliberately falsify the figures.
Zimbabwe’s true figure of corona virus cases and deaths, just like the Gukurahundi massacre, will never be known but even now many people know that the official figure is just another Zanu PF lie! What is so infuriating is that this is one lie that will cost hundreds of thousands of lives because the country never implemented even the simple precautions like isolating those who had the virus!