Harare,(New Ziana) – A visitor from the United Kingdom was the likely source of infection for both the second Covid-19 victim and the latest patient to test positive to the virus in Zimbabwe, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has said.

The second person to succumb to the virus was a 79 year-old man from
Bulawayo who had come into contact with the unnamed visitor from the
UK. He died on April 4.

The same visitor is also said to have gotten into contact with Patient
14, a 53-year old male resident of Bulawayo, who was diagnosed last
Saturday.

The Ministry of Health and Child Care said the “visitor” had initially
tested negative to the coronavirus but later confirmed positive after
another test.

“Even though he (Case 14) was not a direct contact of Case 11, he was in contact with visitor from the United Kingdom, who was in turn in contact with Case 11 on the 23rd March, 2020,” the Health ministry said in its daily update late Sunday.

“Without any other confirmed case to explain the source of infection for case 11 and case 14, the ministry therefore concluded that this visitor from the UK is the most probable epidemiological link to both case 11 and case 14.”

The late patient 11 is said to have come with at least 47 people who have so far been traced by the authorities.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health said Zimbabwe remained on 14 confirmed
cases of Covid-19, including three deaths after 16 more samples were
tested on Sunday, which all turned out negative.

At least seven of the confirmed cases are directly linked to returnees and the visitor from UK .

Zimbabwe has tested a total of 563 people since March 20 when the first
case was recorded, of which 549 were negative.

Testing, which was only being done in Harare, has now been decentralised
to Bulawayo, which tested six samples on Sunday.
New Ziana