Zimbabwe recorded 70 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, taking the overall death toll to 1 057 since March last year when pandemic broke out in the country.
In terms of new cases, the country reported 326 yesterday, a marked decline though from the over 1 000 cases that were reported in the last few days.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases fell to 536 from 588 on Sunday. As of Sunday, 255 Covid-19 cases were hospitalised cases with 74 being severe, 163 mild to moderate and 18 in intensive care units.
An update from the Ministry of Health and Child Care indicates that all 326 were local cases, with Mashonaland West having the highest cases at 66.
Harare had been dominating new cases in the last few weeks. Encouragingly, 627 new recoveries reported, taking the national recovery rate to 72,3 percent.
Active cases went down to 7 694 yesterday, with Harare having the lion’s share at 3 173. As of yesterday, Zimbabwe has now recorded 31 646 cases, 22 877 recoveries and 1 075 deaths.
During the festive season, the country recorded a sharp increase in Covid-19 cases with 1 342 cases and 29 deaths being reported in a week, marking the highest number of infections and deaths to be ever recorded since March last year.
After a week into the new year, the country recorded 34 deaths in one day on January 5. The number of deaths reached 500 on January 10 and two weeks later they have doubled to 1 075.
Acting Bulawayo provincial medical director Dr Welcome Mlilo recently said there are fears that the worst is yet to come hence the need for people to change their behaviour.
He said if the present trend continues, the country’s health care system may not be able to cope.
“We know that in Zimbabwe we don’t have the capacity that we are seeing across for example in South Africa. In situations like this, we all need to play our roles and I don’t think we have started paying for December festivities.
“The Covid-19 has a 14-day incubation period and we fear for the worst in few days to come because of the partying which happened during the festivities,” said Dr Mlilo. – Additional reporting Bulawayo Bureau
