The bulk of the health workers that have tested positive
are nurses.
The latest infections were recorded over the past two
weeks, a trend which Mpilo Central Hospital acting chief executive officer
Professor Solwayo Ngwenya said is worrying. Mpilo has recorded 77 cases and UBH
99 cases among health workers since the beginning of this month.
On Sunday, the country recorded 2 138 new cases and three
Covid-19 related deaths with Bulawayo recording two deaths and 200 new
infections.
According to the Ministry of Health and Child Care daily
report, as of Sunday, the country had recorded 167 140 cases, 129 776
recoveries and 4 738 deaths since March
last year. Active cases rose to 32 626 from 2 843 in 11 days.
Over the last two weeks, Bulawayo recorded 3 277 new
Covid-19 cases, the highest being on December 9 when 679 cases were recorded in
a single day. Five deaths were recorded in the metropolitan province during the
same period.
Statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care show
that by Saturday, a total of 242 Covid-19 patients had been hospitalised with
53 new admissions. At least 211 had mild to moderate symptoms, 24 severe and
six were admitted in intensive care units (ICUs).
A total of 3 956 020 people had received their first
Covid-19 vaccine while 2 976 972 had received their second jab countrywide.
Prof Ngwenya said they recorded 77 cases of infections
among doctors and nurses.
“Since the beginning of December, we have 77 members of
staff who were infected with Covid-19 and they self-isolated.
We are now being affected in terms of human resources and
at the same time there is a rise in hospitalisation and this can only play out
to be a disaster,” he said.
Prof Ngwenya said the high number of health care workers in
isolation was affecting service delivery at the hospital which is now forced to
operate with skeletal staff.
“We had a lot of infections among our staff and they had to
go home on quarantine resulting in our services being crippled,” he said.
Prof Ngwenya said they recorded four Covid-19 deaths in the
last four days.
“As our staff are on isolation, this affects our ability to
render health care to the rising number of hospitalisations. Unfortunately,
despite measures by Government to ensure workers have adequate PPEs, community
transmissions are so high hence our workers are at risk as they use public
transport and mingle with asymptomatic people who continue spreading the
virus,” he said.
In July, 63 health workers comprising of doctors and nurses
at Mpilo Central Hospital had to go on isolation after testing positive to
Covid-19.
UBH acting chief executive officer Dr Harrison Rambanapasi
said since the beginning of December, 99 doctors and nurses tested positive for
Covid-19.
“Since the first of December we have had 99 health workers
across the board including students testing positive and isolating at home.
However, no staff member has been admitted, which means they are not very
sick,” he said.
“If you look at the national statistics, the positivity
rate at UBH is almost the same with the national one, which shows that the
Omicron is highly transmissible.”
Dr Rambanapasi urged citizens to continue to get vaccinated
and adhere to health regulations to curb the spread of the virus. The UBH has a
workforce of more than 1 600.
“If you look at the issue of testing, logistically it is
difficult to do mass testing in view of a workforce of more than 1 600. Testing
them routinely might end up affecting service delivery as that means people
will have to queue to get tested,” said Dr Rambanapasi.
“However, we only test those with symptoms and in the
process of doing so, we have had a significant number of our staff testing
positive for Covid.”
President Mnangagwa recently announced new lockdown
measures.
Some of those measures include mandatory 10-day quarantine
for all returning residents and visitors. The new regulations stipulate that
everyone entering Zimbabwe must undergo a Covid-19 PCR test even when they
produce a Covid-19-free certificate from elsewhere.
The President’s address was in response to reports of a new
strain of Covid-19 virus which has been reported in many countries in Sadc and
beyond.
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