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Council closes clinic after nurse contracts Covid-19

The Bulawayo City Council (BCC) has been forced to temporarily shut down Princess Margaret Rose Clinic for fumigation after one of the nurses tested positive for Covid-19 last week.

Princess Margaret Ross Clinic is located along Samuel Parirenyatwa Street in the Central Business District.

Concerns had been raised that the clinic was still open putting both patients and staff at risk of catching the fast spreading coronavirus.

In an interview with CITE, Director of Health Services in Bulawayo, Dr Edwin Sibanda confirmed that one of their nurses tested positive and was sent home for self-isolation.

He said the clinic had to be disinfected as a precautionary measure.

“The clinic would be fumigated from today to tomorrow. It had not been closed yet but we are closing it temporarily while services would be scaled down,” he said.

Dr Sibanda added that the other nurses who were working at the clinic would be sent home where they are to be tested for Covid-19.

“Their test samples would be done and collected from their homes,” he said

He however, did not have the number of nurses that were affected.

“I don’t have numbers offhand and I can’t determine the number of remaining sisters or those who will come from other clinics for support. We will scale down services during the temporary closure,” Dr Sibanda said.

Meanwhile sources said there was a patient from South Africa who died of suspected Covid-19 case at Thorngrove Infectious Disease Hospital in Bulawayo and what was worrying was the person died before his results were out.

The patient had allegedly tested negative for TB.

But Dr Sibanda clarified that the patient had tested positive for Covid-19 and instead was suspected of having TB.

“The death involved one case of a patient who was positive for Covid-19 and was a suspected case of TB. We are waiting for results to confirm if the deceased did have TB,” he said.

So far Bulawayo has recorded 17 deaths caused by the deadly Covid-19 while latest number of positive people in the city reached 768.

The national number of deaths now stands at 40.

As of July 28, Zimbabwe has 2 817 positive cases of Covid-19 with 604 recoveries.

Lulu Brenda Harris

Lulu Brenda Harris is a senior news reporter at CITE. Harris writes on politics, migration, health, education, environment, conservation and sustainable development. Her work has helped keep the public informed, promoting accountability and transparency in Zimbabwe.

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