The late Ambuya Nguni, mother to former Cabinet Minister Mr
Sylvester Nguni, will be buried this afternoon after becoming the fourth person
in the country to die of Covid-19.
Ambuya Nguni died at West End Hospital in Harare last night
aged 82. She will be buried in line with standard operating procedures for
Covid-19 victims.
Burial is set for the family’s rural home in Mhondoro,
Mubaira area.
Nguni confirmed that his mother had no history of travel,
stayed in a self-contained homestead with just two maids and two herders.
So far as her family are aware, none of her relatives from
towns with confirmed cases of Covid-19 have made contact with her since the
start of the lockdown.
She died in West End Hospital, where she had been taken
when it was assumed she had a resurgence of an earlier non-Covid-19 infection.
The positive Covid-19 diagnosis was the result of the routine test under the
new system of testing all patients with flu-like symptoms.
The hospital has since stopped all admissions until further
notice and patients already in admission are using the upper floors while the
casualty department has since been fumigated.
Speaking to journalists yesterday, Health and Child Care
Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said contact tracing her death has also begun and that
her body was being handled in line with the laid-down procedures for those who
have died of Covid-19.
He said the deceased person would be taken direct for
burial within the next 24 hours.
“There would be continuous follow up on all the medical
staff who have been working with the patient and everyone else who has been in
contact with the deceased.”
Speaking to The Herald in a telephone interview, Mr Nguni
said he received a call from one of the maids at the beginning of the month
saying his mother had a bout of flu.
He said then, they arranged medication for her and she
seemed to have recovered.
However, he said, on Monday she began having difficulties
in breathing resulting in them going to pick her up and bringing her to
Harare for treatment.
“We are all still puzzled as to where she could have got
the virus from. Our homestead is more like a self-isolated facility, which is
detached from the rest of the community. She stayed there with two maids and
two herd boys.
“None of us were in contact with her since the beginning of
the first phase of the lockdown up until now,” said Mr Nguni.
Meanwhile, deputy director disease prevention and control
in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Isaac Phiri has said that all the
recent group of returnees now held in quarantine in Belvedere had been tested
for Covid-19 and would be tested again after seven days with the last tests set
upon their discharge to ensure that they are Covid-19 free as they re-join the
society.
He revealed this during a media webinar organised by the
United Nations in conjunction with Government and Higher Life Foundation.
Dr Phiri added that Government was working flat out to
ensure that all those in quarantine observed social distancing as well as good
hygienic practices to curb possible infections. Herald
0 comments:
Post a Comment