Harare (New Ziana) – Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 death toll jumped to 97 after the country recorded 13 fatalities in 3 days between August 1 and 3, the Ministry of Health and Child Care said.

“Today we regret to report 13 deaths which occurred from 01-03 August 2020 in the community and on admission to casualty departments at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and other hospitals after investigations and postmortems were done,” the Ministry said.

“These include nine males and four females from Harare and Mashonaland West Provinces. “

The Ministry also said an additional 56 new Covid-19 patients were recorded on Thursday, including 54 local cases and 2 returnees from South Africa and Zambia.

“Since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak on 20 March, 2020, the total number of confirmed cases is 4 395, recovered 1 264, active cases 3 040 and 97 deaths.”

The month of July saw the country record an unprecedented peak in new infections and deaths since the first case was registered at the end of March.

Zimbabwe is under an indefinite level 2 lockdown aimed at curtailing spread of the disease but infections continue to spike regardless, with health authorities attributing the increase to failure to observe set guidelines and regulations such as compulsory wearing of masks and physical distancing.

New Ziana