ZIMBABWE’s Covid-19 cases more than doubled in 24 hours after 241 cases were recorded on Tuesday from the 118 cases reported on Monday.
Cumulative Covid-19 cases stand at 40 318 including 1 637 deaths as of 15 June 2021 while recoveries on the other hand are at 37 056.
The surge in Covid-19 cases in the country which this week tightened its lockdown measures is happening at a time when neighbouring South Africa has also moved its lockdown restrictions to a tougher Level 3 lockdown.
“Two hundred and forty-one (241) new cases (239 local and two (2) returnees from South Africa (1) and Zambia (1) and two (2) deaths reported today,” said the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) in its daily Covid-19 update late Tuesday.
“Seven-day rolling average for new cases rose to 142 today from 120 yesterday. Kariba, Karoi and Kwekwe have been put under localised lockdowns.”
MOHCC said hotspots include Mhangura (Mashonaland West), Masvingo District, Chiredzi (Masvingo Province), Nkulumane, Emakhandeni and Northern suburbs (Bulawayo Metropolitan Province.
Of the 241 cases recorded Tuesday, Mashonaland West leads with 115 followed by Masvingo at 37 each, Harare 28, Bulawayo at 22, Mashonaland Central 11, Midlands 7 and Mashonaland East, Matabeleland North and Matabeleland South at 4 each.
The two people who succumbed to the pandemic Tuesday are from Bulawayo and the Midlands.
The government has however blamed complacency for the recent spike in Covid-19 infections arguing Zimbabweans have been mistaking the early successes against the pandemic for a total victory.
“Government notes, with concern, that there was a surge in weekly cases from 226 during the week ending 6 June 2021, to 596 in the week ending 14 June 2021,” said Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa during a post-cabinet briefing Tuesday evening.
“The surge is mostly attributable to the general complacency in adhering to the set Covid-19 preventive and precautionary measures both in the communities and workplaces. Reinforcement of the containment and preventive measures, encapsulated in the extraordinary Government Gazette of 14th June 2021 (Statutory Instrument 170 of 2021), has thus been instituted to curb the spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths. This will ultimately contain a third wave of the Covid-19 outbreak.”
Meanwhile, 1 162 people received their first vaccination jab Tuesday bringing the cumulative total to 694 730 while the figure of those who are fully vaccinated now stands at 418 748.
