Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe
On February 7, 2020, the Department of Health and Child Care reported that the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases rose to 34,552 after 65 new cases were reported.
All are local cases, with the highest number of cases recorded in Harare with 25 cases, while Masvingo has recorded the second highest number with 18 cases.
Note that the hospitalization rate as of February 6, 2021 has decreased significantly with 84 hospitalized cases, 11 asymptomatic cases, 56 mild to moderate cases, 9 serious cases and eight cases in intensive care.
The number of active cases fell to 4,675, while the total number of recoveries rose to 28,551 after the number of recoveries increased by 168.
The recycling rate remains at 82.6%. The death toll rose to 1,326 after 10 new fatalities were recorded. We have raised concerns about the efficacy of AstraZeneca’s vaccines, which are expected to be used in Zimbabwe.
We note the suspension of the vaccination program in South Africa as the effectiveness of vaccines against the COVID-19 variant circulating in South Africa continues to be evaluated and studied.
We call on the government to urgently update the nation on the progress made in tracing the variants circulating in the Zimbabwean population before the start of the vaccine roll-out programme.
We highlight concerns about declining testing. We are concerned that the warnings we have issued about taking steps to maintain a high testing rate will become part of the testing framework towards the end of the lockdown.
We are concerned that compared to the January 14, 2021 scenario, which saw over 3,000 PCR tests performed per day, the current average rate of testing has fallen to 1,000 tests per day.
Today, the current number of PCR tests is 1,064.
- We call on the government to expand community testing by ensuring that mobile testing is carried out in communities.
- We call on the government to ensure that the drop in cases is not correlated with a drop in testing.
