Harare (New Ziana)-Zimbabwe on Saturday recorded five Covid-19 deaths in Harare and Bulawayo, bringing the cumulative death toll to 18, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has said.

In a statement, the Ministry said the Covid-19 positive test results were detected during routine post mortem as part of national surveillance.

“Today we regret to report that five deaths: 3 at community level and 2 at facility level. These deaths occurred in Harare and Bulawayo provinces and were detected during routine post mortem as part of our Covid-19 surveillance. We await full post-mortem results of the direct causes of death,” said the Ministry.

Zimbabwe also recorded 40 new Covid-19 cases, including 13 health workers.

The new infections bring the country’s cumulative confirmed Covid-19 cases to 982.

“Forty (40) cases tested positive for Covid-19 today. These include returnees from South Africa (6), Liberia (4) and 30 local cases who are isolated. The local cases consist of 13 health care workers from Mpilo (10) and (3) from a quarantine centre in Matabeleland south Province.
“Five (5) of the local cases are contacts of known confirmed cases. Investigations are underway to establish the source of infection of the remaining 25,” said the Ministry.

The Ministry added: “Since the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak on 20 March 2020, the total number of confirmed cases is 982; recovered 320, active cases 644 and 18 deaths.”

The total number of tests conducted to date now stands at 88 436.

New Ziana