“There were 102 new covid-19 cases and one death in the country bring the total to 5 745 confirmed cases and 151 deaths,” reported Ministry of Health and Child Care..
The people of Zimbabwe like to be led by the nose like a bull at the market! The country is in this economic and political mess because for the last 40 years Zanu PF has ridden over this nation roughshod, denying the people the freedoms and rights and robbing the nation blind. The nation’s economy is in total ruins and 34% of the population now live in abject poverty.
Zimbabwe’s 5 745 confirmed covid-19 cases and 151 deaths with 16 million population puts the country in the same league, in terms of containing the virus, as New Zealand and South Korea with 1 671, 22 and 5 million and 17 002, 309 and 52 million confirmed cases, deaths and population respectively. Whilst New Zealand and South Korea are known for their very strict quarantine measures and very aggressive test, trace and track regimes respectively; Zimbabwe has done nothing of note to contain the virus. Absolutely nothing!
Zimbabwe’s covid-19 figures should be comparable to those of South Africa with 603 338 confirmed cases, 12 843 deaths and a population of 60 million. One reason why Zimbabwe’s covid-19 figures are low is because the country has not been testing as aggressively as it should.
As of the end of July 2020, SA had done 3 million tests (no where near the aggressive testing of South Korea) and Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population should have done 750 000 tests to keep pace with SA. In reality Zimbabwe had done only 145 000 tests or 20%.
“Test! Trace! Track!” has been the World Heath Organisation’s clarion cry to the world!
It is only by testing, tracing and tracking that one will know of corona virus outbreak and by forcing all the infected into isolation and, if necessary, placing a whole city, region or even country into lockdown, to contain and stop the spread of the virus. If one does not test at all, which is the extreme case, then one will have zero confirmed cases and zero deaths.
The tragedy of doing few tests or zero tests is the nation has no clue how the virus is spreading and therefore will not take even the common sense measures such as isolation to contain and stop the spread of the virus. There have been hundreds if not thousands of covid-19 deaths in Zimbabwe and the people have been forced to bury their dead without taking the precautions to stop getting the virus.
There should be teams of well trained and equipped tasked with the responsibility to bury all covid-19 victims in every district across the land. There are no teams to test suspected covid-19 cases much less team to bury covid-19 dead! None!
There is overwhelming anecdotal evidence to show that corona virus is more widespread than the Ministry of Health and Child Care reports would have us believe. Zimbabweans are chasing to believe the official reports and not their own eyes because they are used to being led by the nose like a bull at the market!
Mutendi is just one of few individuals who have profited from Zanu PF's looting and is defending the regime for all his worth! But his efforts are nothing because there are millions of ordinary Zimbabweans now demanding change and they are worth a great deal more than him and his fellow Zanu PF cronies and apologists!
ReplyDeleteThe Ebola outbreak in western Democratic Republic of Congo has infected 100 people as of Friday, killing 43 of them, the World Health Organization said.
ReplyDeleteThe latest outbreak of the virus was declared on June 1 in Mbandaka, a city of 1 million people on the River Congo, just before Congo declared the end of a previous outbreak in the east that had dragged on for two years.
It has spread to remote villages in Equateur province spanning more than 300 km of dense forest with few roads, the WHO said in a statement. The pace of the virus’s spread has been relatively consistent, case data shows.
“The virus is spreading across a wide and rugged terrain which requires costly interventions,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa regional director.
DRC is one of those African countries, just like Zimbabwe, that is crippled by multi-layered problems all because it has failed to deal with the core problem of bad governance! You cannot address the problems of corruption, poverty, corona virus, ebola, etc., etc. until you address the problem of rigged elections and bad governance!
As rule of thumb, nations get the government they deserve. We, in Zimbabwe, certainly deserve this corrupt, incompetent and tyrannical Zanu PF dictatorship complete with its coterie of equally corrupt and incompetent opposition parties. We have earned this wasteful, oppressive and utterly useless government because we are a breathtakingly naive and gullible lot.
ReplyDeleteWhen Mnangagwa and his fellow coup plotters booted the former boss, Robert Mugabe, out of office in the November 2018 coup they sold it to the people as “a military assisted transition”. Surprise, surprise, the people swallowed the bait, hook and sinker; the people came out in the thousands in support of the coup.
Justice George Chiweshe followed the military assisted transition nonsense with a High Court judgement declaring the coup “legal, justified and constitutional”!
Only a breathtakingly naive and gullible people would ignore the reality of the soaring numbers of corona virus cases and deaths among them to believe the blatant lies of the Ministry of Health and Child Care reports. Of course, the official reports are lies and damned lies at that!
How can the report of 151 covid-19 deaths be anything but a lie when government is deliberately refusing to test the hundreds of thousands of people with the corona virus symptoms! Only a fool would step into the river just because government said there are no crocodiles when he/she can see the many cat-eyes in the moonlight and have just witness someone being torn apart!
For the last 40 years, Zimbabweans have paid dearly for their folly is accepting bad governance; the corona virus outbreak has push the price a lot high. Unless Zimbabweans snap out of their sloth-like slumber and finally do something to end the curse of rigged elections and bad governance hundreds of thousands will suffer and many will die unnecessarily from covid-19. After the corona virus is teamed, the economic recovery will be hard for all but even harder for those nations still under the yoke of corrupt, incompetent and vote rigging dictatorship!
Jimmy Kunaka denies that he is the one who told the Police where Sikhala was hiding.
ReplyDeleteWhy did MDC ever come to trust a ruthless Zanu PF thug like Kunaka? Is it because MDC does not object to thuggery per se but only to Zanu PF thuggery. Kunaka is not the first former Zanu PF thug to be accorded a warm welcome in MDC there are others notably Jabulani Sibanda, war veterans like Matemadanda when they fell out with Mugabe and more recently Professor Jonathan Moyo including Robert Mugabe himself.
It is little wonder that MDC has failed to implement even one democratic reforms to dismantle the Zanu PF dictatorship in 20 years. MDC leaders do not object to dictatorship per se they only object to a Zanu PF dictatorship! If we are serious about seeking a free, just and democratic Zimbabwe then we must look to others and not MDC leaders to bring it!
Members of Parliament will be subjected to compulsory Covid-19 tests when Parliament resumes sitting on September 1.
ReplyDeleteThe decision was made by the Parliament's standing rules and orders committee chaired by National Assembly speaker Jacob Mudenda during a meeting in Harare last week.
There is no doubt that the MPs will be tested. When it is the lives of the ruling elite at stake “compulsory test” means just that.
When it comes to the lives of the ordinary people, the government has promised to test frontline workers regularly, all those with covid-19 symptoms, etc. but has never kept the promise. Zimbabwe has done only 145 000 tests in 5 months to end of July or 1 test in 110 population compared to SA’s 1 test in 20. It is no surprise that many on the health workers have not been tested when they should have been tested at least five times by now!