Zim Covid-19 cases continue to surge

Covid-19 cases are on the rise in Zimbabwe but authorities have not specified if the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, is the one driving the surge.

In August, World Health Organisation (WHO) Zimbabwe team leader, Dr Lincoln Charimari said the Delta variant, first identified in India but now active across the word, accounted for 79 percent of local coronavirus infections in Zimbabwe.

The Beta variant first detected in South Africa accounted for 16 percent while the Alpha strain first seen in Britain made up 2.5 percent of Zimbabwean Covid-19 infections.

Early this month, Minister of Health and Child Care, Constantino Chiwenga announced that the Omicron variant of Covid-19, first detected by scientists in South Africa,  had been found in Zimbabwe, after conducting genomic sequencing.

However, from its daily reporting on Covid-19, Zimbabwe’s health ministry is ‘mum’ if the Omicron variant is the one driving up the positive cases.

Statistics from the Ministry of Health and Child Care released on Monday, December 6, 2021, showed that new infections rose sharply to 2 555 from 523 on Sunday December 5, 2021.

This is the highest number of new daily cases since July 21, 2021, when 2 705 were recorded on a single day.

Daily coronavirus cases during the July wave peaked at 3 110, as that month was seen as the deadliest with the highest Covid-19 deaths and infections in Zimbabwe since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.

Official figures showed that while on June 30, 2021, Zimbabwe had recorded 49 864 cases and 1 789 deaths, the figures had ballooned to 107 490 cases and 3 490 deaths by July 30, 2021, as a third wave swept across the country.

On December 2, 2021,  new Covid-19 cases were 1 042 and this was the first time detected daily cases rose above 1 000 since August 4, 2021, when 1 091 infections were recorded.

Meanwhile, Covid-19 testing also increased from December 5, 2021 (Sunday) where 2 500 tests were done to 8 380 on December 6, 2021 (Monday).

The testing statistics for recorded cases and the PCR tests are as follows

From the table, Zimbabwe recorded 712 new cases on Wednesday. That’s up from 40 on Sunday, 235 on Monday and 399 on Tuesday.