Zimbabwe’s health delivery system is being reformed and
restructured, new Health and Child Care Minister Vice President Constantino
Chiwenga said yesterday, promising a new era in healthcare.
The Vice President was recently mandated by President
Mnangagwa the additional task of taking charge of the Health Ministry,
currently under the spotlight because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Eighteen more deaths due to Covid-19 have been recorded
between Thursday last week and Tuesday this week after tests during
post-mortems, taking the total death toll to 122.
In its daily report yesterday, the Ministry of Health and
Child Care said the patients died in the community and on admission to the
casualty ward at Parirenyatwa Hospital and other hospitals. Almost all the
deaths — 10 men and six women — were in Harare with one man each from
Manicaland and Midlands. Mutare and Gweru have been seen as the epicentres of
the pandemic in these two provinces.
Yesterday, 75 new infections were confirmed, all local
except a single returning resident from South Africa, taking the total to 4 893
confirmed cases with 3 740 of these being infected within Zimbabwe.
Of the local infections, Harare accounts for 1 595 with 71
deaths, Bulawayo for 1 103 with 23 deaths, Midlands for 334 with six deaths and
Manicaland for 195 with 10 deaths. Mashonaland East, which includes a belt of
settlements, such as Ruwa, right on Harare’s eastern border, now has 197 local
cases and one death.
There have been 1 620 confirmed recoveries but with the
Harare total on just 76 there is still a large group of people who are now well
but who have yet to enter the official statistics as cured.
South Africa has now recorded 10 751 deaths from 566 109
cases but with 426 125 recoveries.
Besides dealing with Covid-19, nurses are also on
industrial action in some parts of the country in protest over working
conditions.
Speaking for the first time following his appointment to
head the ministry, Vice President Chiwenga, who was speaking at Hippo Valley
estates during a tour of winter maize being grown on newly cleared and
irrigated land, said a new era had dawned.
“Things will never be the same again. We are restructuring
and reforming our health delivery system. We want to rebuild the structures
from village to referral level. Things will never be the same again, but we
must work together.”
The clean-up of the country’s health sector was being done
together with the Health Services Board and other ministries such as Finance
and Economic Development.
“We have already identified the problems and we do not want
a repeat of what was happening before,” he said.
Turning to Covid-19 cases that continue to rise in the
country, he urged Zimbabweans to adhere to what health experts say and was
concerned that infections continued to spike in Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and
Mutare, the country’s biggest cities.
“I am the Minister of Health (and Child Care) and we are
faced with a pandemic. We are getting daily updates on Covid-19 and Mr Covid-19
kills. The current state of affairs should not remain like this.”
Community and political leaders, including
Parliamentarians, had to take the lead in the fight against Covid-19 in their
areas if the battle against it was to be won.
President Mnangagwa appointed Vice President Chiwenga as
new Health Minister after firing Dr Obadiah Moyo after he was arrested on
allegations of involvement in a dubious procurement deal now cancelled. Herald
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