News / National
COVID-19 second wave hits Zimbabwe hard
07 Dec 2020 at 20:38hrs | Views
THE much-feared coronavirus second wave is increasingly becoming a reality in the country - with the lethal disease claiming the lives of 10 people over the weekend, amid an alarming drop in discipline among ordinary people.
The growing coronavirus indiscipline by many Zimbabweans saw police calling for tougher penalties yesterday against those who are disdainful of necessary public management measures of the lethal virus, including the wearing of face masks in public.
This comes as the Covid-19 national death toll has risen to 291, after nine people died in Harare and one person succumbed to the disease in Bulawayo over the weekend.
Among those who lost their lives to coronavirus at the weekend was ZBC reporter Janet Munyaka, who died at a private hospital in the capital after recently contracting the respiratory disease.
In addition to appealing for public compliance to Covid-19 restrictions that were imposed earlier in the year when the authorities introduced a national lockdown, law enforcement agents also warned yesterday that they would clamp down ruthlessly on errant commuter omnibus operators who were illegally ferrying passengers in violation of the corona regulations that include physical distancing.
"People are taking Covid-19 for granted. We are concerned with people who are not wearing masks in public places. "Relevant authorities must review the fines because they are lagging behind," national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi lamented in an interview with the Daily News.
"On the issue of public transport, kombis are sprouting everywhere and police are doing their best day and night to stop them from operating.
"The illegal kombis are endangering the lives of the general public. There is a need for a complete change of mind set in the country, where everyone plays by the rules. "Covid-19 is real and it affects everyone," Nyathi further told the Daily News.
Since the introduction of the national lockdown in March, police have arrested a total of 254 510 people for breaching Covid-19 restrictions.
This comes as the country has recorded about 10 600 known positive Covid-19 cases since the pandemic broke out in the country. On Saturday alone, 75 people tested positive for the disease, including the 10 reported deaths.
Health experts said yesterday that they were very worried about the worsening indifference among ordinary people to the disease.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, the president of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) Enock Dongo urged authorities to review and to tighten the national lockdown.
"President Emmerson Mnangagwa said early this year that it's better to have a poor economy and save people's lives than to have a good economy without anyone surviving.
"In my view, I think we are below 10 percent in terms of our preparations and currently we don't have the capacity to handle coronavirus cases.
"All people who are recovering are doing so naturally and by the Grace of God because our hospitals are not equipped to handle the disease. "The government must do more to deal with this pandemic. We need to go back to lockdown. We know that the economy will not perform, but lives are more important than the economy.
"People are going to die if the government continues to ignore the situation in our hospitals," Dongo told the Daily
News.
This comes as doctors and nurses have also raised alarm over the number of health workers who are contracting
the lethal virus due to a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Last month, at least five nurses were said to have tested positive for the disease at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. Authorities have said 653 workers have been infected by coronavirus since its arrival in the country. All of them had recovered from the disease.
Fears of a devastating second wave of Covid-19 have been growing in the country following a sharp rise in the number of learners contracting the virus - with schools such John Tallach, Goromonzi High School, Waddilove and Chinhoyi High being forced to temporarily close their doors.
Yesterday, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) said more than 90 percent of schools in the country were at risk of spreading Covid-19, as most of them did not have adequate PPE.
"Most schools in the country are unsafe because of shortages of adequate supplies of sanitisers, health personnel in the schools and enough infrastructure to facilitate physical distancing during lessons and examinations. "The implementation of standard of operation procedures (SOP) is being compromised, thereby making schools unsafe, and the prerequisite procedures for safely operating schools are absconded with about 75 percent of the inspected schools not fumigated yet after they were used as quarantine centres.
"We observed that the movement of learners from their respective homes, since they use their own transport to and from school, is not monitored - thereby increasing the spread of the virus. "There is poor hygiene particularly in flush toilets because of inadequate supply of running water, especially in urban and peri-urban schools.
"All rural schools mostly use Blair toilets, but the schools can no longer afford to fumigate and sanitise the surfaces of the toilets," Artuz said.
This also comes amid several warnings by health experts and other stakeholders that the government could struggle to contain a second Covid-19 wave if schools were not closed immediately.
But authorities have remained steadfast that schools and higher learning institutions would remain open, notwithstanding the increasing cases. Responding to legislators who accused the government of not being proactive in its Covid-19 fight, the leader of government business in Parliament, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, recently said schools must implement the SOP given to them by authorities.
"What we have decided as the government is that we have to adapt and live in the new normal. What we cannot do is that if a school in Chinhoyi has an outbreak of Covid-19, we then close a school in Mutare.
"We look at it case-by-case and say we have had cases here, and so what do we do to ensure the safety of the learners as well as to ensure that learners continue learning. We have realised that we can literally have a 365-day lockdown.
"At one point or the other, we will have sporadic cases of Covid-19, and indeed we are now experiencing a second wave. "But we need to ensure that we adhere to what the ministry of Health is prescribing as to what the WHO is telling us, and also ensure that we educate all of us on the dangers of Covid-19. Then, we can move forward in the new normal," Ziyambi said.
Among the countries that have been hardest hit by a second wave of Covid-19 include the United States of America where more than one million people were infected by the virus in one month in the run-up to its elections last month.
Neighbouring South Africa is also recording an average of 3 000 new infections a day. Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed stringent measures in Nelson Mandela Bay, as he tried to curb the spread of the virus which has hit Africa's most industrialised economy very hard.
The growing coronavirus indiscipline by many Zimbabweans saw police calling for tougher penalties yesterday against those who are disdainful of necessary public management measures of the lethal virus, including the wearing of face masks in public.
This comes as the Covid-19 national death toll has risen to 291, after nine people died in Harare and one person succumbed to the disease in Bulawayo over the weekend.
Among those who lost their lives to coronavirus at the weekend was ZBC reporter Janet Munyaka, who died at a private hospital in the capital after recently contracting the respiratory disease.
In addition to appealing for public compliance to Covid-19 restrictions that were imposed earlier in the year when the authorities introduced a national lockdown, law enforcement agents also warned yesterday that they would clamp down ruthlessly on errant commuter omnibus operators who were illegally ferrying passengers in violation of the corona regulations that include physical distancing.
"People are taking Covid-19 for granted. We are concerned with people who are not wearing masks in public places. "Relevant authorities must review the fines because they are lagging behind," national police spokesperson Paul Nyathi lamented in an interview with the Daily News.
"On the issue of public transport, kombis are sprouting everywhere and police are doing their best day and night to stop them from operating.
"The illegal kombis are endangering the lives of the general public. There is a need for a complete change of mind set in the country, where everyone plays by the rules. "Covid-19 is real and it affects everyone," Nyathi further told the Daily News.
Since the introduction of the national lockdown in March, police have arrested a total of 254 510 people for breaching Covid-19 restrictions.
This comes as the country has recorded about 10 600 known positive Covid-19 cases since the pandemic broke out in the country. On Saturday alone, 75 people tested positive for the disease, including the 10 reported deaths.
Health experts said yesterday that they were very worried about the worsening indifference among ordinary people to the disease.
Speaking to the Daily News yesterday, the president of the Zimbabwe Nurses Association (Zina) Enock Dongo urged authorities to review and to tighten the national lockdown.
"President Emmerson Mnangagwa said early this year that it's better to have a poor economy and save people's lives than to have a good economy without anyone surviving.
"In my view, I think we are below 10 percent in terms of our preparations and currently we don't have the capacity to handle coronavirus cases.
"All people who are recovering are doing so naturally and by the Grace of God because our hospitals are not equipped to handle the disease. "The government must do more to deal with this pandemic. We need to go back to lockdown. We know that the economy will not perform, but lives are more important than the economy.
"People are going to die if the government continues to ignore the situation in our hospitals," Dongo told the Daily
News.
This comes as doctors and nurses have also raised alarm over the number of health workers who are contracting
the lethal virus due to a lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE).
Last month, at least five nurses were said to have tested positive for the disease at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare. Authorities have said 653 workers have been infected by coronavirus since its arrival in the country. All of them had recovered from the disease.
Fears of a devastating second wave of Covid-19 have been growing in the country following a sharp rise in the number of learners contracting the virus - with schools such John Tallach, Goromonzi High School, Waddilove and Chinhoyi High being forced to temporarily close their doors.
Yesterday, the Amalgamated Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (Artuz) said more than 90 percent of schools in the country were at risk of spreading Covid-19, as most of them did not have adequate PPE.
"Most schools in the country are unsafe because of shortages of adequate supplies of sanitisers, health personnel in the schools and enough infrastructure to facilitate physical distancing during lessons and examinations. "The implementation of standard of operation procedures (SOP) is being compromised, thereby making schools unsafe, and the prerequisite procedures for safely operating schools are absconded with about 75 percent of the inspected schools not fumigated yet after they were used as quarantine centres.
"We observed that the movement of learners from their respective homes, since they use their own transport to and from school, is not monitored - thereby increasing the spread of the virus. "There is poor hygiene particularly in flush toilets because of inadequate supply of running water, especially in urban and peri-urban schools.
"All rural schools mostly use Blair toilets, but the schools can no longer afford to fumigate and sanitise the surfaces of the toilets," Artuz said.
This also comes amid several warnings by health experts and other stakeholders that the government could struggle to contain a second Covid-19 wave if schools were not closed immediately.
But authorities have remained steadfast that schools and higher learning institutions would remain open, notwithstanding the increasing cases. Responding to legislators who accused the government of not being proactive in its Covid-19 fight, the leader of government business in Parliament, Justice minister Ziyambi Ziyambi, recently said schools must implement the SOP given to them by authorities.
"What we have decided as the government is that we have to adapt and live in the new normal. What we cannot do is that if a school in Chinhoyi has an outbreak of Covid-19, we then close a school in Mutare.
"We look at it case-by-case and say we have had cases here, and so what do we do to ensure the safety of the learners as well as to ensure that learners continue learning. We have realised that we can literally have a 365-day lockdown.
"At one point or the other, we will have sporadic cases of Covid-19, and indeed we are now experiencing a second wave. "But we need to ensure that we adhere to what the ministry of Health is prescribing as to what the WHO is telling us, and also ensure that we educate all of us on the dangers of Covid-19. Then, we can move forward in the new normal," Ziyambi said.
Among the countries that have been hardest hit by a second wave of Covid-19 include the United States of America where more than one million people were infected by the virus in one month in the run-up to its elections last month.
Neighbouring South Africa is also recording an average of 3 000 new infections a day. Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa imposed stringent measures in Nelson Mandela Bay, as he tried to curb the spread of the virus which has hit Africa's most industrialised economy very hard.
Source - dailynews
