AS the number of confirmed cases went to 1 034 yesterday,
tougher action to stop truck drivers smuggling people across borders and
between cities, more community surveillance and more testing in the vicinity of
clusters of Covid-19 cases to isolate hotspots are among the measures the Ad
Hoc Inter-Ministerial Taskforce on Covid-19 has recommended.
Last night, the Ministry of Health and Child Care announced
49 new infections, 21 of them local within communities and the rest among
returnees. Another death, arising from routine testing in a post-mortem,
brought the total to 19, with 343 recoveries.
Yesterday’s taskforce meeting comes in the wake of a
growing number of people being infected inside Zimbabwe within their
communities, rather than having almost all cases among people infected outside
and being found during tests in quarantine centres.
Health services are being continually upgraded, with the
latest move being the appointment of 13 Zimbabwean doctors and other
professionals who have come home.
Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister
Monica Mutsvangwa said last night after the meeting that the taskforce studied
reports from its subcommittees and discussed the further action needed to
contain the spread of the pandemic.
Chief Coordinator of the National Response to the Covid-19
pandemic Dr Agnes Mahomva presented her report, which was guided by the six
criteria set by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on understanding the
epidemiology of Covid-19.
While the taskforce noted the progress made so far in
responding to the threat posed by Covid-19, it recommended a number of actions
to strengthen the response and action plan, which include the mapping and
testing of areas around clusters of cases, a need to increase community
surveillance, the erection of temporary structures at ports of entry to house
the rising number of returnees into the country, and the strengthening of cross
border security checks.
Minister Mutsvangwa said the taskforce resolved to build on
the progress already achieved and cautioned citizens against suffering from
“lockdown fatigue” at a time when cases are racing towards the 1 000 mark.
“Our vigilance should be the same level as it was on Day 1.
Let us not run out of steam,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
She said as new information surrounding the Covid-19
pandemic was coming out, the Government was adjusting its response and action
plans to ensure Zimbabwe takes the correct preventative and protective
precautions to combat the virus.
“In light of the increased positive cases that are being
recorded, efforts are being channelled to resource medical facilities that will
deal with Covid-19 cases. As such, 13 foreign trained Zimbabwean doctors and
members have been appointed and they are to assume duty starting from today,
July 13 2020,” said Minister Mutsvangwa.
The logistics subcommittee reported that enforcement had
been intensified to penalise truck drivers and unauthorised passengers who are
failing to adhere to regulations regulating restricted goods and cross border
vehicles transiting through Zimbabwe.
Minister Mutsvangwa said Covid-19 was real and it was
critical to ensure no one engaged in actions that put the nation at “a greater
risk of infection”.
“The use of cross-border vehicles as a means of
transportation is taking the nation back in its fight against the pandemic,”
she said.
The minister said as the infection numbers are rising,
together with the death rate, health facilities would be stretched and the
nation cannot afford the complacency being witnessed.
She said WHO health experts were cautioning nations on the
threat posed by local transmissions in the fight against Covid-19, adding that
while Government can tell citizens to wear masks, wash and sanitise their
hands, travel when it is absolutely necessary and maintain social distancing,
it was up to every Zimbabwean to practise the preventive measures.
Minister Mutsvangwa rallied the nation to adapt to the new
normal, which will minimise risk of being infected, in line with President
Mnangagwa’s call that the economy can be resurrected, but not the dead.
Meanwhile, the repatriation of Zimbabweans from across the
world continues, with 11 889 returnees having been processed through quarantine
facilities.
The taskforce was informed that an Air Zimbabwe flight
expected to repatriate Zimbabweans from Guangzhou and Wuhan Provinces in China,
developed a technical problem recently and is stuck in Bangkok. The replacement
engine was airlifted to Thailand yesterday.
The food and water sustainability subcommittee updated the
taskforce on the children and adults living and working on the streets who have
been placed in halfway homes and rehabilitation centres since the start of the
lockdown in March 2020.
In Harare Province, 29 adults are being housed, of which
seven are yet to be reunited with their families while in the Midlands Province,
13 adults are being housed and their families are being traced. In Manicaland
Province, six children are being housed as their families are also being
traced.
Dr Mahomva said in tandem with six criterion set by WHO, it
was important to ensure the disease transmission is under control, to manage
the risk of importing new cases, and for the health system look at suspected
cases, detect, test, identify, isolate and then treat them.
Further, hotspots need to be contained while preventative
measures are put in place at workplaces and schools, while communities are
fully empowered, and educated to be able to change their behaviours to embrace
preventative social measures recommended.
Dr Mahomva said that the Ministry of Primary and Secondary
Education was working closely with the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare to
ensure that schools would re-open safely near the end of the month as planned.
Herald
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