To date SA has carried out a total of 3 million test and has 511 000 confirmed cases. Zimbabwe has done 144 000 tests and 4 000 confirmed cases. With 1/4 the population of SA, Zimbabwe should have done 750 000 tests, we have only done 20% of the tests, and most of the test targeted returnees whilst ignoring even the top priority groups like health care workers and all those with covid-19 like symptoms.
Zimbabwe has not been testing even the health care frontline workers, it is only starting to do so now and hence the reports of 70 health care workers testing positive at Parerinyatwa Hospital, 20 at Maphisa District Hospital and 40 at Mpilo Hospital’s Opportunistic Infection Clinic. At 2 000 test a day, it will take months to test all health care workers and we have yet to test the patients and other suspect cases!
Zimbabwe should mobilise for a blitz testing, tracing and tracking to recover lost ground, we should have 1 million tested for covid-19 by the end of this month. If Zanu PF can mobilise to impose a nation wide dawn to dusk curfew to stop Sikhala and Ngarivhume street protests; the only thing stopping the regime mobilising a blitz covid-19 test squad is lack of political will.
If Zimbabwe has carried out the test, trace and track routine as aggressively as it is supposed to and the country had done 750 000 or so tests, then the number of confirmed covid-19 cases will 1/4 those of SA, 125 000 and not 4 000. All those tested and found to have the corona virus have rightly gone into isolation.
So, for everyone person in self-isolation, there are possibly 30 others who should be in isolation but are out. They are spreading the virus but only because they are not aware they have the virus. Only they needed to know their covid-19 status was a simple test costing US$ 6 to 20. And the failure to carry out the test in going to cost hundreds of thousands of human lives. A sobering thought!
The only people who are benefiting from Zimbabwe’s failure to test aggressively and thus the under reporting of the country’s corona virus cases, by the end of the year the difference between the official figure and the real could well be thousands of times, is Mnangagwa and his Zanu PF regime. The regime views the low covid-19 cases in the country as proof of Zanu PF’s competence in containing the corona virus.
Whilst countries like South Korea, New Zealand and China who have had great success in containing corona virus can point to their aggressive testing, strict quarantine and mobilising human and material resources to deal Wuhan outbreak respectively.
Zanu PF is claiming the accolades for successfully containing corona virus and yet the regime cannot point to anything it did - other than stubbornly refuse to test and falsify the data! I will be damned, if I should let Mnangagwa and company get away with such callous and calculated criminal behaviour!
Officials said Mnangagwa, at the start of the cabinet meeting on Tuesday, asked anyone who had been in contact with Shiri to go into self-isolation pending testing.
ReplyDeleteThis came after it had been revealed that Shiri, an energetic former military chief, had held several meetings in the few days leading to his demise, including with serving army chiefs.
"He (Mnangagwa) made it very clear that he expected anyone who could have been in contact with Shiri to self-isolate at home and avoid spreading the virus," a top official said.
Among those absent at the meeting, sources said, were Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa, Mines and Mining Development minister Winston Chitando and Home Affairs minister Kazembe Kazembe who reportedly met with shiri before his death.
"They did not attend the cabinet meeting. They were in contact with Shiri a few days before he died," the source said.
The Information minister's husband, Chris Mutsvangwa, is also said to be one of those who has gone into quarantine as he was also a contact of Shiri. He even missed Zanu-PF's politburo meeting on Wednesday last week.
Sources also said deputy Defence minister Victor Matemadanda, who is also the Zanu-PF national political commissar, is also in isolation.
However, he said: "I'm not in quarantine, I am not sick. Those who are saying I'm sick will be shamed."
Contacted for comment, Mutsvangwa said: "I am absolutely fine. My husband is fine. The issue is that everyone is just taking precautionary measures and you should also be doing that."
Kazembe said yesterday was his 13th day in self-isolation and would be out today.
YOUTH, Sport, Arts and Recreation deputy minister Tino Machakaire has tested positive for Covid-19.
Posting on his Facebook page Thursday, Machakaire who is also legislator for Hwedza South confirmed he has tested positive and has since gone into self-isolation.
“I hope you are well and healthy during these difficult times. Unfortunately, the current news is not good, and our nation is in the midst of alarming increase in the number of Covid 19 deaths,” Machakaire said.
“I have also tested positive for Covid-19 and I have since self-isolated. In times of a pandemic, privacy concerns must be balanced with efforts to protect others.
For the last five months the one corona virus message that has been said over and over again is: “Test, trace and track! Zimbabwe is not doing so and will pay dearly for it!” There is not a single government official, much less cabinet member, who can pretend they did not know that Zimbabwe was deliberately not testing as extensive as it should.
Of course, the Zanu PF leaders knew the party’s iron grip on power would be threatened if the nation was to know the party was failing to contain the corona virus just as it has failed to revive the country’s economy. If you do not test and confirm it was covid-19, all those with the virus and die from it will be assumed to have some other disease not covid-19.
This Zanu PF regime has deliberately under reported the corona virus figures to hide the truth of the virus spreading; this foolish decision has helped the virus spread even more because all those who should have gone into isolation if they had known they had the virus have not done so.
It is comforting to note that many Zanu PF chefs have themselves contracted the virus; there is some justice in that since they are responsible to the virus spreading. Still, there must be a full and though going inquiry into why Zimbabwe has failed to carryout even the common sense precautions such as testing extensively to contain the corona virus. Zanu PF must not be allowed to get away with this latest act of blatant criminal negligence the same way the party got away with the blatant rigging of elections, etc.
Kwe kwe town clerk in a covid-19 scare.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe has not been testing to track the spread of corona virus and now the country is tracking the virus by the number of people falling ill and the many who are dying!
African Union (AU) Special Envoy for COVID-19 and businessman Strive Masiyiwa has called on community leaders - including chiefs, religious leaders, councillors and members of Parliament - to lead in arresting the spread of COVID-19 at the local level.
ReplyDeleteMasiyiwa writes:
A dear friend called me the other day quite distressed because his brother's wife had just died, and he and his immediate family were trying to decide whether to attend the funeral or not.
My advice was simple and honest: "Funerals are what are known as ‘Covid Superspreaders'. If you want to go to more funerals, then keep attending Funeral Wakes (traditional gatherings that take place when someone dies).
"I know it is our tradition to attend funeral wakes, but that is one tradition we just have to suspend for now. Next year we can have beautiful funeral services for anyone who dies now."
My friend was so distraught. Then I reminded him what Jesus Christ had said about upholding traditions that stifle progress.
I agree 100% that funerals are “covid-19 super spreaders” and people should stop having more than a few people attending funerals.
There number of deaths in Zimbabwe have skyrocketed and given the fact the country has not been testing for corona virus as aggressively as it should, it is almost certain most of these deaths are corona virus deaths.
Zimbabwe has done 145 000 or so covid-19 tests compared to SA than has done 3 million tests; given Zimbabwe’s population of 1/4 that of SA we should have done 750 000 tests! By doing only 20% as many tests as we should it means there are hundreds of thousands of people out there who should be in isolation if they knew they the virus but are instead out spreading the virus.
Zanu PF has been boasting of the country’s low covid-19 confirmed cases and deaths, we all know this is one lie the country is paying heavily for!
Corona virus is more widespread than the Zanu PF regime would want to admit, indeed the regime has deliberately ignored the World Health Organisation’s clarion call to “Test, trace and track!” Whilst SA, for example, has carried out 3 million test Zimbabwe, with 1/4 the population, should have done 750 000 tests. In reality we have done 145 000 tests, or 20%.
ReplyDeleteThe less you test the less the number of confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths. It is no surprise that, officially, Zimbabwe has one of the lowest confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths per capita. Zanu PF has already been boasting about it; the very low figures “prove” the regime has contained the virus. A false narrative, of course!
By failing to test, trace and track aggressively Zimbabwe have left many people with the virus to continue spreading the virus but only because they did not know they condition. If they had been tested and told they had the virus, of course, they would have gone into isolation. So by failing to test aggressively Zanu PF has only helped the virus to spread far and wide and the rising death toll is telling it all.
With more and more people being infected the greater the chance of anyone including the ruling elite getting the virus. The late Minister Perrance Shiri is one member of the ruling elite to succumb to the corona virus. Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans will die of covid-19, many Zanu PF chefs among them; no doubt, the offcial narrative will say they died of other causes.
"Chiwenga's first task is to get doctors and nurses back to work and I am sure he is going to do that this coming week," a well-placed source said.
ReplyDelete"He will try to make things work in the Health ministry and all hospitals to function and save lives, reinventing his legacy in the process."
It was, however, not immediately clear how Chiwenga would get the health workers back at work, but the source said negotiations for government to pay them United States dollar-based salaries were already in progress.
Last time Chiwenga was left to deal with the nurses’ strike the first thing he did was fire the lot!
Chiwenga is a typical ignoramus who knows fcuk all but claims there is nothing he cannot do because he believes he knows it all! The tragedy here is after 40 years of these village idiots blundering from pillar to post, dragging the nation deeper and deeper into this hell-on-earth, they are still in power and all we can do is wring our fingers in anger and despair at the madness.
The unhygienic conditions in Zimbabwe's prisons make them covid-19 hotspots, why Chinono and Ngarivhume have been arrested nd send to prison beggars belief!
ReplyDeleteChaminuka Building, the home of the dreaded Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) has been shutdown with reports saying the authorities were fumigating the place as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of the deadly Coronavirus.
ReplyDeleteThe closure comes after Provincial Intelligence Officer in the Counterintelligence branch of the CIO, Joseph Mbwanyo and CIO Assistant Director of Operations Rushmore Mukwamba are reported to have succumbed to the deadly virus.
Senior journalist Brezhnev Malaba has warned Zimbabweans to desist from visiting government offices as they have been marked red zones.
"Keep away from government buildings. They're not safe. Mukwati, New Govt Complex and other precincts are hotspots for Covid-19. Avoid them." Malaba said.
Zimbabweans have been warned repeatedly that to contain the corona virus the country must “Test, trace and track!” came the clarion cry from WHO.
We have known that this Zanu PF regime has not been testing for selfish reason of keeping the official covid-19 figure low so it can hide its failure to contain the virus. And in our usual time honoured fashion we have buried our collect head in the sand and saw nothing and said nothing.
Meanwhile the corona virus has been spreading just as WHO said it would. People who should have been in isolation if they had been tested and knew they had the virus have been roaming freely and spreading the virus. The virus has not spared the Zanu PF ruling elite but that is little comfort to the millions of ordinary people who too caught up in this man-made storm.
“Government offices are covid-19 hotspots!” How naive and idiotic! The whole country is a covid-19 hotspot!
"We are witnessing more cases of people diagnosed with COVID-19 after a post-mortem has been done. So, from the number of people who have died, most of them are people who are dying at home," Matara, who is secretary for the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights, said.
ReplyDeleteZimbabwe has not been testing as aggressively as it should and therefore the country’s covid-19 confirmed cases and deaths are not a true reflection of the reality on the ground. One has to ask doctor Matara and his ZADHR colleagues have failed to see what Zanu PF is doing and flag it up!
The failure to test aggressively means many Zimbabweans with the virus have been spreading the virus when they should have been in isolation. In other words, the failure to test aggressively means the folly has helped corona virus to spread far and wide. What a nightmare!
ZISCOSTEEL Finance Executive Munashe Mabheza has become the first person to succumb to Covid-19 in Kwekwe, NewZimbabwe.com can report.
ReplyDeleteMabheza passed on Saturday night at his home in Redcliff.
Redcliff Mayor Clayton Masiyatsva confirmed the death.
“This is the first Covid-19 death in Redcliff. We have gathered that the now deceased is Mr Mabheza, the Financial Executive at Ziscosteel. He died at his home,” Masiyatsva said.
He added that Mabheza had not been aware of his status.
“He didn’t know that he had contracted the deadly virus. It was only after the rapid response team had gone to his place that they discovered he had Covid-19 after testing was conducted by Mars.
“His family initially bared the tasksforce insisting that no-one was sick at the place. It was only after his health deteriorated that they called Mars. Unfortunately, he couldn’t be saved so he died at home,” Masiyatsva said.
The steel manufacturing town of Redcliff now has eight confirmed Covid-19 cases
Zimbabwe has not been testing, tracing and tracking as aggressively as common sense dictates. The tragedy here, is that Zimbabwe health professionals and the populous have let the nation and themselves down by failing to take the government to task on why it was not testing aggressively as recommended by WHO? The price of failing to test aggressively means the virus has spread far and wide!
As of yesterday 11 August 2020, Zimbabwe had 4 748 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 1 524 recoveries and 104 deaths.
ReplyDeletePARIRENYATWA Hospital's COVID-19 centre has been overwhelmed by the number of confirmed cases since the beginning of last month when the centre started operating, a situation blamed on lack of equipment and the ongoing health workers' strike.
In a report, the hospital said it had run out of beds to accommodate inpatients.
The hospital is "extremely short-staffed, not possible to achieve the level of monitoring of patients required; number of admissions has been rising substantially, not enough beds," the report which covers the period from July 1 when the centre started operating to July 24, read.
"Nineteen percent of the admissions were obese, 11% with HIV infection with 59% having one or more chronic comorbidities," the report said.
Age and comorbidities were cited as strong risk factors for the spike in cases and deaths, while renal failure was another common complication, which led to some of the deaths, the report noted.
Zanu PF blatantly rigged the July 2018 elections and one of the primary ways the party did this was by making sure there was no verified voters’ roll. The country’s law and common sense dictates that there must be a verified voters’ roll; we did not have and the opposition played along by pretending this was a must have!
Zanu PF is blatantly rigging Zimbabwe’s corona virus figures to hide the regime’s blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic. The primary method in rigging the covid-19 statistics is by making sure the country does not test for the virus. If you don’t test for corona virus you cannot be certain it is corona virus and therefore can attribute the sickness or death to a host of other causes.
Up to end of July SA had done 3 million covid-19 tests. Zimbabwe’s population is 1/4 that of SA and so we should have done 750 000 tests but had only done 145 000 or 20%. No wonder Zimbabwe continues to have one of the lowest per capita confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths in the world - don’t test, don’t know!
The corona virus outbreak happened at a time when Zimbabwe’s economy was already in total meltdown, its health care service had all but collapsed and, to crown it all, had one of the most corrupt and incompetent governments in the world. To therefore see Zimbabwe’s very low covid-19 statistic is as outrageous as Zanu PF claiming the July 2018 were free, fair and credible.
Zanu PF has already been boasting about Zimbabwe’s low covid-19 cases, proof, the regime maintains, of its competent handling of the pandemic. The regime’s brownie points comes with a high price tag.
By failing to test and isolating those with the virus means many covid-19 positive cases have been allowed to mix freeing in the community spreading the virus far and wide.
Just as the country’s opposition politicians connived with Zanu PF in giving credibility in a flawed and illegal election process the country ’s health professionals, politicians and the Zimbabwe public are all conniving in Zanu PF’s folly of falsifying the seriousness of the corona virus in Zimbabwe. What a shame! What a tragedy!
The envoys were in Harare "to identify possible ways in which South Africa can assist Zimbabwe" — amid rising tensions and allegations of gross human rights violations in the country.
ReplyDelete"The special envoys came to meet President Emmerson Mnangagwa and they were also open to meeting any other key actors, including members of the opposition and the civil society if the opportunity presented itself.
"In this case, however, they met with the head of State of Zimbabwe and decided to go back to South Africa and brief President Ramaphosa on their meeting.
"Their wish is to meet with other key actors in Zimbabwe and if an opportunity presents itself they will come back and meet them in future," Mbete told the Daily News.
It made a lot of sense for the special envoys to meet the opposition and other stakeholders whilst they were in Zimbabwe. But after two hours of being lectured at and told in no uncertain terms all the stories of human rights abuses were “hashtag nonsense” it was pointless to meet anyone else. Zanu PF’s arrogance and belligerence and in being so dismissive and disrespectful of President Ramaphosa in this case; made it utterly pointless for the envoys to remain in the country for one second longer.
ZIMBABWE has gone for 24 hours without recording any new Covid-19 deaths, the Health Ministry has announced.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Tuesday 70 new cases, all local infections were recorded, bringing the total cases to 4 818. Deaths remain on 104.
The new cases were recorded in Harare, 28, Bulawayo 22, Mashonaland East 17 and Matabeleland North with three, the Health Ministry said in its daily Covid-19 update.
Zimbabwe is not testing as aggressively as it should; we are just continuing to blunder in the dark! Hundreds if not thousands of Zimbabweans are dying of covid-19 it is just that no one is testing these people. This is just madness!
"We reinforce our call for an advanced test strategy which ensures community mass testing and also in the public sector. We further urge the government to give a long outstanding report on the tracing of contacts of all the local transmission cases thus far and to appropriately inform the applicable communities," reads part of the statement.
ReplyDeleteIn the absence of mass community testing and public accounting for local transmission case-tracing, WCoZ said "we continue to raise queries on the appropriate reflection of the Covid-19 pandemic prevalence in Zimbabwe".
The women's group also called on the government to extend Covid-19 testing to the public sector to protect citizens from contracting the disease.
I salute the Women Coalition of Zimbabwe for taking government to task on the country’s failure to carry out tests aggressively and thus have a true picture of the spread of corona virus in the country. Whilst SA has done 3 million test, as of end of July we in Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population of SA should have done 750 000 tests. We had done only 145 000 tests or 20%.
There so if 1 out of every 5 people with corona virus are in isolation the remaining 4 are out there spreading the virus all because no one tested and told them they had the virus!
We have a regime that had the resources to impose a dawn to dusk curfew across the country but will not deploy covid-19 test teams to test and track the spread of the virus. Indeed, the regime is deliberately not testing so that it can boast of contain the virus when the exact opposite is true!
EIGHTEEN more deaths due to Covid-19 have been recorded between Thursday last week and Tuesday this week after tests during post-mortems, taking the total death toll to 122.
ReplyDeleteIn its daily report this Wednesday, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said the patients died in the community and on admission to the casualty ward at Parirenyatwa Hospital and other hospitals. Almost all the deaths — 10 men and six women — were in Harare with one man each from Manicaland and Midlands. Mutare and Gweru have been seen as the epicentres of the pandemic in these two provinces.
On Wednesday, 75 new infections were confirmed, all local cases except a single returning resident from South Africa, taking the new total to 4 893 confirmed cases with 3 740 of these being infected within Zimbabwe.
Of the local infections, Harare accounts for 1 595 with 71 deaths, Bulawayo for 1 103 with 23 deaths, Midlands for 334 with six deaths and Manicaland for 195 with 10 deaths. Mashonaland East, which includes a belt of settlements, such as Ruwa, right on Harare's eastern border, now has 197 local cases and one death.
Zimbabwe has only been doing about 20% of the tests it should be doing compared to SA. This is not enough tests for us to know what is really happening on the ground. The failure to carry out enough tests is helping the virus spread far and wide because individuals who, if they knew had the virus, would be in isolation will be out spreading the virus.
The only individual “gaining” from the falsified covid-19 statistics are Zanu PF leaders who have already been boasting of the country’s low figures as proof the regime is handling the pandemic very, very well indeed. Zimbabwe is paying very dearly for this lie!
FUNERAL service providers and hospital mortuaries are struggling to clear bodies for burial owing to challenges in handling those that would have succumbed to Covid-19, coupled with a surge in deaths from other diseases.
ReplyDeleteHealth officials revealed bodies are piling up in the mortuaries with relatives of deceased persons waiting for up to two days before their relatives' bodies are released. The delay is mainly due to the guidelines set for dealing with infectious Covid-19 bodies.
Some funeral parlours have recorded a 100% increase in funeral services requests. This also comes as the country's health system has crumbled to unprecedented levels, as people are dying unnecessarily due to non-availability of health care services.
Official statistics by the Health and Child Care ministry show that as of Wednesday 122 people have died of Covid-19 since March 2020.
A July Covid-19 internal audit report reveals that Parirenyatwa hospital recorded a 34% death rate of patients
Something is not quite right here? We are being told “bodies are piling up in the mortuaries” and “funeral parlours have recorded a 100% increase in funeral services requests”! And yet the country has only had a total of 122 covid-19 deaths since March!
The truth is not so hard to uncover. Zimbabwe has followed the “Don’t test!” policy and thus managed to keep the official figures of confirmed covid-19 cases and deaths very low. In practice, the number of covid-19 cases and deaths are much, much higher.
Indeed the country’s failure to test as aggressively as it should meaning every died body must be assume to be covid-19 positive and treated accordingly, just to be on the safe side. In the rural areas where everything is very basic, covid-19 bodies are assumed to be free of the virus and therefore become just one more source of the virus.
“Don’t test!” policy is going to result in many people getting the virus because those with the virus did not know it. This policy is foolish, just justified and irresponsible. Government has stubbornly refused to ramp up the tests for the selfish purpose of keeping the official covid-19 figures low so the regime can hide its blundering incompetence in the handling of the pandemic!
There are reports of bodies"piling up in mortuaries" and Funeral parlours order books increasing by 100%. And we are to believe this is all because 128 people have died in the last 5 months, not weeks, not days and not 5 hours but 5 months!
ReplyDeleteZimbabweans have been cheated and short changed again and again notable during elections and they have shrugged their shoulders and said nothing. There is no doubt that the nation is been cheated here and the price for saying nothing is the heavy death toll we are now seeing.
The number of people with corona virus and those who have died of the virus is a hell lot bigger than the Zanu PF regime is letting on. The regime is not testing anywhere near what it should. SA with a population 4 times bigger than our has done 3 million test as of the end of July 2020. We should have done 1/4 of 3 million or 750 000 tests. We have done only 145 000 or 20%.
Many people out there are covid-19 positive and many of soaring deaths are covid-19 victims but because none of them were tested they are not counted as corona virus cases. The price of not testing is all those who do not know they have the virus and not in isolation and therefore free to roam around and spread the virus far and wide. Thousands if not hundreds of thousands will die of covid-19 all because government would not carry out a US$6 test and inform the people. Worse still, the people themselves knew government was letting the nation down but many failed to lift a finger to stop the madness!
80 people that work at Munhumutapa Building, the building that houses president Mnangagwa’s offices reportedly tested positive for COVID-19.
ReplyDeleteA source privy to the developments told the publication that, Public Service Commission even sent 85% of its staffers on quarantine after the novel coronavirus hit the government department’s offices in Harare.
The matter came to light in a memo seen by the publication from PSC Secretary Ambassador Jonathan Wutawunashe to other staff members which reads in part:
In view of the continued increase in the number of COVID-19 cases within the civil service, the Commission has been left without a choice but to further reduce the number of essential staff. Reduce the number of essential service staff to 15% of the current members coming to work. Reduce the number of people who use public transport since local community transmission is on the increase PSC reportedly also sent memos to ministerial heads advising them to reduce the number of workers in their offices and introduce remote working.
Zimbabwe’s COVID-19 cases are 10 cases short of 5000 positive cases since the onset of the virus on 20 March 2020.
80 people from one office block alone have tested positive. The other day 26 at Zanu PF HQ tested positive and a few days before that 70 health care workers at Parerinyatwa Hospital had tested positive on covid-19. And yet when the official report comes out the whole of Harare Province have 50 or so confirmed cases for a whole week!
Parerinyatwa Hospital reported of 8 patients dying of covid-19 and 13 died testing positive in the period 9 June to 25 July. And yet official the whole of Harare Province had a total of 10 covid-19 deaths from March to 25 July!
The more stories one reads on corona virus cases in Zimbabwe the more one is left in no doubt that there is a deliberate ploy on the part of the Zanu PF regime to muddy the waters. The corona virus outbreak is taking a heavy toll in the country and the regime is deliberately keep the number of confirmed cases and deaths very low to give the impression the regime has contained the virus to hide the tragedy caused by its blundering incompetence.
What is so disappointing is that the people themselves are being lied to and, worst of all, are paying dearly for these lies in terms of the hundreds of thousands who will die simply because government would not test and inform them so they could go into isolation. And the people are say nothing and doing nothing about it! Absolutely nothing. Fcuk me! Of course, we deserve to suffer and die - and are suffering and dying!