THE Chinese government yesterday said it would be deploying
medical experts to Zimbabwe as part of helping authorities combat the spread of
the lethal coronavirus (Covid-19), the Daily News reports.
This comes as China, from where the first case of Covid-19
was reported — has successfully contained the disease after imposing strict
stay-at-home regulations.
Minister-counsellor of the Chinese embassy in Zimbabwe Zhao
Baogang yesterday told the Daily News that 11 medical experts were on their way
to Harare.
“The date for the
arrival has not yet been confirmed, but we expect them soon. Zimbabwe has been
working very hard to contain the disease and we want to share the experience
with Zimbabwe.
“China was the first country to record a Covid-19 case and
was also the first country to have preliminary success in containing the
disease,” Zhao said.
“We have managed to put the virus under control and have to
work hard to ensure that there is no resurgence. We will learn from each other. The Zimbabwean doctors
recently had a video conferencing with their Chinese counterparts.
“We will share the best expertise with our Zimbabwean
friends. We had a medical team in Ethiopia and Burkina Faso
recently … The team will also bring some medical supplies to Zimbabwe,” Zhao
further told the Daily News.
All this comes as the Chinese government and its citizens,
including billionaire, Jack Ma, have made significant donations to Zimbabwe as
part of strengthening the government’s fight against the deadly virus.
Zimbabwe has entered its final week of an extended lockdown
following the country’s failure to meet six core guidelines set by the World
Health Organisation (WHO) for the lifting of the stay-at-home order.
Announcing the extension, President Emmerson Mnangagwa said
there were fears that once Zimbabwe breached 100 confirmed cases, his
government would struggle to contain the coronavirus.
“Once the cases begin to grow exponentially the impact on
our health system will be huge…we should use the window of current low
infections to tighten our defences while providing for the worst case scenario
of a fully blown health crisis.
“From the very beginning we have always known that a
national lockdown cannot be the cure or solution, rather it merely buys time
for us to slow down transmissions while we take other measures and prepare on
many fronts to deal with the pandemic.
“We chose the route of abundant caution at whatever cost
and discomforts, this route brings to our society. I have already said the lockdown is not the panacea while
we seek real durable solutions,” said Mnangagwa.
Zimbabwe has so far recorded four deaths from the 31 cases
of people who have contracted Covid-19.Daily News
0 comments:
Post a Comment