COVID-19 cases rising

GOVERNMENT has urged the public to continue following guidelines on the prevention of COVID-19 following an increase in new cases in the past few days.

Speaking to NewsDay, Health and Child Care deputy minister John Mangwiro said Zimbabweans should take more precautions.

Cases have risen in the past week from as low as four confirmed cases on August 29 to as high as 33 cases on Tuesday when three deaths were recorded on the same day.

"People must continue to take COVID-19 seriously because it is still with us. There should be no room for complacency and people must continue following set measures," Mangwiro said.

Zimbabwe has recorded 5 599 COVID-19 deaths and 257 000 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic.

Hamadziripi Dube, a medical practitioner, told NewsDay that there was need to encourage more people to get vaccinated.

"Almost everyone is going around without wearing a mask. We still need to push for people to be vaccinated so as to achieve herd immunity for our country," he said.

"We still need to reach our herd immunity so as to ensure safety. The media should continue giving awareness on the issue and ensuring increased vaccination through their work."

Statistics show that 4,73 million Zimbabweans have been fully vaccinated, against a government target to vaccinate 10 million citizens.

Community Working Group on Health executive director, Itai Rusike said the surge in COVID-19 cases showed the general poor compliance and adherence to the public health preventive measures.

"We are also aware that the infection-detection rate remains low due to the decline in testing capabilities but we really want to encourage the people of Zimbabwe to come forward and take the vaccine and those with pre-existing health conditions should especially take the additional booster jab," Rusike said.

Government lifted the mandatory wearing of face mask on August 16, but only for the fully vaccinated following a decline in recorded cases and fatalities.