AN employee of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) in
Bulawayo, who was in self-isolation pending her Covid-19 test results and
allegedly violated regulations by travelling to Gweru with four other people in
her car, has tested negative.
The other four people she travelled with have also been
traced, tested and put under quarantine. In an interview yesterday, the Minister of State for
Midlands Provincial Affairs and Devolution Larry Mavima confirmed the development.
Minister Mavima, who is also the Covid-19 Midlands
Provincial Taskforce chairperson, said the Zimra officer’s Covid-19 results
came back negative.
“The results of the Zimra Bulawayo officer came out
negative. The woman is said to have travelled to Gweru before her Covid-19
results came out. The four passengers she travelled with to Gweru have been
contacted and had Covid-19 tests done. They are waiting for results and they
have all been put in quarantine just to be sure,” he said.
The female employee is said to have travelled to Gweru
after her workmate, a 27-year-old male, tested positive for Covid-19 in
Bulawayo on April 29 prompting Zimra to close its Bulawayo offices and send 52
of its workers who might have been exposed to the virus for testing and
mandatory self-isolation.
The female officer, who is one of the 52 workers from the
Bulawayo office, allegedly disregarded self-isolation regulations and travelled
to Gweru where her family is based.
It is understood that the woman who resides in Senga
high-density suburb in Gweru but works in Bulawayo was told by officials from
the Ministry of Health and Child Care to go under self-isolation and avoid
interacting with other people but failed to comply and travelled to Gweru with
four other passengers.
Her trip to Gweru was discovered after the Bulawayo
Provincial Covid-19 Response Team visited her place of residence for routine
check-ups. The team was then advised that she had left for Gweru, prompting it
to advise the Midlands Provincial Covid-19 Rapid Response Team to look for her
at the Senga family home.
Zimra Commissioner-General Faith Mazani had earlier issued
a statement confirming that 52 people from the revenue authority’s Bulawayo
offices have been subjected to testing and self-isolation after one of the
workers tested positive.
“We were notified by the Health and Child Care Ministry
that a frontline staff member of the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority tested positive
for coronavirus on 29 April. As Zimra, we wish to inform our valued clients and
members of the public that our Bulawayo port offices have been immediately
closed pending comprehensive disinfection as well as receipt of results of 52
officers who may have been exposed to the virus. All the tested individuals
have since been put under mandatory self-isolation for at least 14 days,” she
said. Chronicle
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