Harare (New Ziana)-Covid-19 cases in Zimbabwe continue to rise with the country recording a rolling seven- day average of 56 cases, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has said.
In a daily update, the Ministry said the country recorded 88 new locally transmitted Covid-19 cases and 5 deaths within the last 24 hours.
Some of the new cases are being recorded among learners, raising fears of a new wave of COVID-19 infections at a time schools have just re-opened for the third term.
The five deaths were recorded in Bulawayo (4) and Masvingo (1).
“As of 23 November 2020, Zimbabwe has now recorded 9 308 cases including 8 288 recoveries and 273 deaths,” the Ministry said.
Health experts have, however, cited complacency by the public in observing COVID-19 regulations such as wearing face masks, sanitising and social distancing.
Chief coordinator for the National response to the Covid-19 pandemic in the Office of the President and Cabinet Dr Agnes Mahomva urged citizens to continue adhering to Covid-19 prevention guidelines.
“The biggest challenge that we are actually facing is that people are not adhering and quite clearly you get numbers going up,” she said.
“If you got the infection, you are not wearing a mask or you are wearing it as a fashion statement leaving your nose out, you spread infection and hence translate it to those large numbers that we are seeing,” she added.
Dr Mahomva said the government was moving to strengthen Covid-19 screening at the country’s borders.
“So we are working on the community transmissions to get people to adhere and also focusing on the ports of entry where we are seeing cases increasing because we opened borders
“We cannot be on lockdown forever so we are strengthening our screening,” she said.
Meanwhile, the government through the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) on Sunday embarked on a nationwide community-based COVID-19 testing study which will pinpoint and inform the deployment of tailor-made responses for specified communities.
This is being done as part of a number of measures to respond to a possible second wave of the pandemic, as the country has been recording an increase in the number of new infections recently.
Individuals in more than 7 000 households will be screened for the virus in all the 54 districts under the National Sero-Prevalence Survey for COVID-19, which will run-up to December 30.
The NIHR will test nearly 4 600 individuals in rural households, with individual per household being tested.
New Ziana
