Covid-19 cases, deaths continue rising

Harare (New Ziana) – Four more people succumbed to Covid-19 in Zimbabwe, pushing the death toll to 265, the Health Ministry said in its daily update on Friday.

Sixty- five new local COVID-19 cases were also recorded from 1 123 tests conducted countywide on Thursday.

The latest COVID-19 cases bring the country’s cumulative tally to 9 046 since March when the pandemic started.

The new cases, some of them being recorded among students, have raised fears of a new wave of COVID-19 infections at a time schools have just re-opened for the third term.

John Tallach High School in Matabeleland North province has recorded 115 Covid-19 cases among the students.

There were also fears of Covid-19 infections at Prince Edward School in Harare.

But Director of Communication in the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education Taungana Ndoro told New Ziana that no Covid-19 case was confirmed at Prince Edward School.

“There is no Covid-19 at Prince Edward School. There was a flu-like case but learners were tested and the results were negative.

“The John Tallach School case we are treating it as a special case because we have a high number of cases reported there. We continue to implement our standard operating procedures to ensure that infections do not further spread among learners, their families and other schools,” he said.

Ndoro added: “The success rate of our standard operating procedures is 99.99 percent”.
He said the Ministry had also successfully handled the Cambridge Examinations without any learner getting infected.

“We are now expecting to do the same with Zimsec examinations.Our learners are ready to write those examinations,” said Ndoro.

Government has, however, indicated that it is investigating the source of Covid-19 infections among learners.

This has prompted debate among lawmakers who feel that schools should be closed immediately to give government the chance to combat COVID-19.

But Ndoro said: ”As a Ministry we have taken a position that examinations must proceed. Postponement means there will be a time when the country will not have any graduates.”

Health experts have, however, cited complacency by the public in observing COVID-19 regulations such as wearing masks, social distancing and observing curfew times.

On Thursday, police reminded the public on the need to observe the health regulations as the country was still under Covid-19 induced lockdown.
New Ziana