GOVERNMENT has urged the public to continue following guidelines on the prevention of COVID-19 following an increase in new cases in the past few days.
Speaking to NewsDay, Health and Child Care deputy minister
John Mangwiro said Zimbabweans should take more precautions.
Cases have risen in the past week from as low as four
confirmed cases on August 29 to as high as 33 cases on Tuesday when three
deaths were recorded on the same day.
“People must continue to take COVID-19 seriously because it
is still with us. There should be no room for complacency and people must
continue following set measures,” Mangwiro said.
Zimbabwe has recorded 5 599 COVID-19 deaths and 257 000
cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.
Hamadziripi Dube, a medical practitioner, told NewsDay that
there was need to encourage more people to get vaccinated.
“Almost everyone is going around without wearing a mask. We
still need to push for people to be vaccinated so as to achieve herd immunity
for our country,” he said.
“We still need to reach our herd immunity so as to ensure
safety. The media should continue giving awareness on the issue and ensuring
increased vaccination through their work.”
Statistics show that 4,73 million Zimbabweans have been
fully vaccinated, against a government target to vaccinate 10 million citizens.
Community Working Group on Health executive director, Itai
Rusike said the surge in COVID-19 cases showed the general poor compliance and
adherence to the public health preventive measures.
“We are also aware that the infection-detection rate
remains low due to the decline in testing capabilities but we really want to
encourage the people of Zimbabwe to come forward and take the vaccine and those
with pre-existing health conditions should especially take the additional
booster jab,” Rusike said.
Government lifted the mandatory wearing of face mask on
August 16, but only for the fully vaccinated following a decline in recorded
cases and fatalities. Newsday
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