Bulawayo family placed under self-quarantine

Harare (New Ziana) – The government said on Monday a Bulawayo woman suspected to have been exposed to Covid-19 in South Africa recently has been placed in preventative self-quarantine together with her family.

The woman had gone to South Africa for medical treatment and returned home recently.

Reports indicate her South African doctor was exposed to Covid-19 and had been placed under quarantine.

South Africa now has over 60 confirmed cases of the deadly virus which has wracked unprecedented havoc across the globe, killing over 6 000 people and infecting more than 150 000 others.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said test results for the woman and her family would be announced soon.

“As of yesterday, the 15th of March, 2020, we received a report of a suspected case in Bulawayo, this suspected case involves a female traveller who travelled from South Africa to Zimbabwe on Tuesday the ninth of March 2020.

“This traveller had gone to seek medical attention for other reasons from a general practitioner in South Africa the previous day before she travelled back to Zimbabwe. She later received a call from public health personnel in South Africa advising her that her doctor had been put in self quarantine after one of the patients the doctor had attended to had tested positive for COVID-19,” he said.

“This patient is now under self-quarantine together with those who stay with her. Our rapid response team in Bulawayo immediately went to the address where she lives with her family and placed them on self-quarantine. We are now awaiting test results for this family.”

Moyo said a Covid-19 rapid response team had also received another alert of a possible case in Victoria Falls.

The case involves a British tourist who visited the resort town last week, but later tested positive after returning home.

“Today we received another alert that there is a tourist who came to Victoria Falls on the 7th of March 2020 and they departed on the 10th of March back to the United Kingdom. They went back through South Africa, stayed a few days there, then they eventually went back to the United Kingdom where they tested positive,” he said.

“Our rapid response team is on to the particular lodge where they were staying in Victoria Falls. It is another place we have had to cordon off, with everyone there being quarantined while we await the test results.”

Moyo said another two suspected cases, two Chinese nationals, were currently detained at Wilkins Hospital in Harare.

“One was coming from Shanghai and they came from China aboard Ethiopian Airlines and the other is from London who came aboard Kenyan Airlines. So they are isolated at Wilkins and again we are awaiting results.”

Moyo said, although Zimbabwe was yet to record any positive cases, Zimbabweans should take precautions to avoid catching the virus.
So far, the seven suspected cases reported in Zimbabwe have tested negative

“There are increasing cases within the region and in particular in South Africa just across the border, and we know there is a huge flow of travellers to and from south Africa, we are therefore making recommendations that as we go into the Easter festivities that we reduce the numbers at these gatherings, we want to make sure that we do not have huge gatherings,” he said.

Asked why Zimbabwe was yet to close its borders in line with what other countries including South Africa had done, Moyo said; “We shall have a continuous change of instructions which we will have to follow.”

“At the level that we are in we are still at zero Covid-19. As you have seen with what has happened with other countries they have not rushed to bring about drastic solutions so we are learning from others and what they have done.”

Moyo however hinted that more changes with regards to travel restrictions and preventative measures would be announced after Tuesday’s Cabinet session.
New Ziana