Zim records first COVID-19 recovery

Harare, (New Ziana) – Zimbabwe recorded its first Covid-19 recovery on Tuesday, but its number of confirmed cases went up by one to 18, the Ministry of Health and Child Care has said.

In its daily update, the Ministry of Health said the recovered patient,
who was not named, had now tested negative for the virus.

“The Ministry would like to advise the nation that one of the cases was confirmed as recovered after testing negative for Covid-19 on two
samples collected at least 24 hours apart,” the Ministry said.

World Health Organisation guidelines state that patients who are being
cared for at home must test negative in two samples collected at least
24 hours apart before they are released from isolation.

Without shedding more details on the new infection, the Ministry said
the case had been recorded in the capital, Harare.

Only one sample out of the 61 tested on Tuesday came out positive, the
Ministry said, as the country entered day 17 of a national lockdown
aimed at curtailing the spread of the disease.

To date, 665 tests have been conducted since the coronavirus first
case was recorded late last month, with 647 of them being negative for
the virus.

Government has since announced it is targeting to scale up testing to
at least over 30 000 samples a day.
New Ziana