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2 returnees from India test positive for Covid-19
15 May 2021 at 04:41hrs | Views
TWO returnees from India have tested positive for Covid-19. They were in a country grappling with a highly transmissible virus variant first detected in that country but is now spreading across the globe.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care yesterday said 25 new cases were reported on Thursday in Zimbabwe and two of the cases were of people who had returned from India. The cases from India were recorded as Covid-19 active cases in Zimbabwe went up to 623 on Thursday, up from 610 cases the previous day.
Following the deadly strain that has hit India, the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the outbreak is reaching rural areas with great speed as infections crossed the 24 million mark.
Until late February, India was considered a success story, with experts surmising that declining infections might be due to the South Asian country's warm climate, young inhabitants and high population density. However, now India is the epicenter of the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is reclassifying the highly contagious triple-mutant Covid variant spreading in India as a variant of concern, indicating that it's become a global health threat. According to WHO a variant can be labeled as of concern if it has been shown to be more contagious and more deadly.
The strain has been found in Maharashtra, the second-most populous state in India, as well as a few other states in the country. The new wave of infections in Africa is thought to be partly associated with the emergence of some variants that are more transmissible.
Uganda was the first country on the continent to confirm the presence of a variant first identified in India late last year, in a sample taken from a traveller.
The Ministry of Health and Child Care yesterday said 25 new cases were reported on Thursday in Zimbabwe and two of the cases were of people who had returned from India. The cases from India were recorded as Covid-19 active cases in Zimbabwe went up to 623 on Thursday, up from 610 cases the previous day.
Following the deadly strain that has hit India, the country's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the outbreak is reaching rural areas with great speed as infections crossed the 24 million mark.
Until late February, India was considered a success story, with experts surmising that declining infections might be due to the South Asian country's warm climate, young inhabitants and high population density. However, now India is the epicenter of the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it is reclassifying the highly contagious triple-mutant Covid variant spreading in India as a variant of concern, indicating that it's become a global health threat. According to WHO a variant can be labeled as of concern if it has been shown to be more contagious and more deadly.
The strain has been found in Maharashtra, the second-most populous state in India, as well as a few other states in the country. The new wave of infections in Africa is thought to be partly associated with the emergence of some variants that are more transmissible.
Uganda was the first country on the continent to confirm the presence of a variant first identified in India late last year, in a sample taken from a traveller.
Source - chronicle
