Chairperson of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Health and Child Care chairperson Dr Ruth Labode recently told parliament that Covid-19 cases are on the rise at Mpilo Hospital and are likely to interrupt the upcoming general elections set for 23 August 2023.
“I am really sorry I have to say this. I was at Mpilo Hospital yesterday and I noticed in Bulawayo a lot of people were wearing masks and I asked. They said doctor can you go to Mpilo. I went to Mpilo and a doctor took me to an isolation centre which was supposed to be for cardiac diseases and it has been converted to isolate children with Covid,” she said.
“When a child who is 3 years old has Covid, how many people have been infected who were looking after that child.”
Dr Labode said even pregnant women are affected as Covid-19 is on the increase.
“If you do not trigger an alarm now, you will go to elections under lockdown.”
She added, “The Minister must declare now that start wearing masks because COVID is back. For sure COVID is back and it does not want elections.”
Contacted for a comment, Mpilo Hospital Chief Medical Officer, Dr Narcisius Dzvanga said they were only eight confirmed cases.
“Covid-positive patients at Mpilo currently, maternity three, Main hospital three, paediatric hospital one child and one caregiver,” said Dzvanga.
Zimbabwe recently scrapped most of the Covid-19 mandatory measures such as wearing face masks following an announcement by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that the disease was no longer a public health emergency of international concern.
