Zimbabwe’s Covid-19 deaths and infections which reached alarming levels in January owing to increased movements during the festive season have been going down since the last week of the same month, something health authorities have attributed to the lockdown currently in place.
The highest death record of 70 people in 24 hours was reached on January 25 while on January 26, a total of 358 infections was recorded, a development which could have triggered the extension by two weeks to February 15,of the Covid-19-induced lockdown.
However, as the month drew to a close, both infections and deaths began decreasing to date.
For example, 300 infections and 19 deaths were recorded on January 27 while 306 infections and 18 deaths were registered on January 29.
On January 30 however, 321 infections were recorded while deaths went down to 15.
Infections dropped to 115 on January 31 while deaths went up to 24.
On February 1, 160 infections and 17 deaths were recorded while on February 2, a total of 266 Zimbabweans contracted the coronavirus while 20 succumbed to the pandemic.
Announcing lockdown extension last Friday, Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, said the level 4 National Lockdown that came into force on the 5th of January 2021 had stabilised the coronavirus situation in the country.
“In relative terms and since the lockdown, the number of infections have been decreasing substantially,” said Chiwenga, who is also the Minister of Health and Child Care.
“Equally, our recovery rate has gone up from an all-time low of fifty-four percent to the current one which is seventy-five percent. Even though the numbers we are losing to the pandemic are falling, we bemoan the fact that Zimbabweans are dying.”
Notwithstanding 1 234 people have since succumbed to Covid-19 since the first Zimbabwean case, more than two thirds last month, the country has seemingly been doing well in terms of trying to overcome the second wave with the recovery rate now at more than 79 percent and the case fatality rate now at 3,59 percent.
“The taskforce noted a decreasing positivity rate from the peak in mid-January to the present, a clear indication that the surge in cases is now under control,” said Information Minister, Monica Mutsvangwa, last night while acknowledging January has been a difficult month.
“However, this should not be seen as a reason to throw caution to the wind, but for the nation to vigilantly adhere to Covid-19 protocols. The past week, the cumulative number of countrywide arrests for flouting Covid-19 regulations increased by over 2 000 from 19 188 the previous week to 21 647.”
The country has to date recorded over 33, 800 cases of Covid-19 since March 2020.
