HARARE – Zimbabwe announced the most coronavirus cases in a single day on Wednesday after five people in the second city of Bulawayo were confirmed to have locally contracted the virus.
The latest positive tests brought the national tally to 23, including three confirmed deaths.
The ministry of health said 51 tests were conducted at two labs in Harare and Bulawayo on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative tests to date to 716.
“The TB reference laboratory in Bulawayo tested 23 samples, and five were positive for Covid-19. All the five cases were due to local transmission,” the ministry said in a statement, but offered no further details.
On Monday, three cases were reported in Bulawayo – the previous highest daily total. Two of the cases were being linked with a 79-year-old man who died at Mater Dei Hospital on April 4. His doctor initially treated him as a malaria patient, and his Covid-19 status was only confirmed three days after he died. Delays in making the correct diagnosis exposed dozens of people to the virus.
The provincial breakdown so far has Bulawayo leading with 10 cases, followed by Harare with eight, Mashonaland East with four and Matabeleland North with one.
Meanwhile, the ministry has provided further information on ‘Case 18’ whose positive test was confirmed on Tuesday. He is a 44-year-old Harare man who returned from a trip to the United Kingdom on April 13, 2020.
On arrival, he had no signs or symptoms suggestive of Covid-19 and was put on mandatory quarantine at a facility in Harare.
“The local rapid response team collected samples from all returning residents at that quarantine centre. He was diagnosed positive for Covid-19 and has since been relocated to Wilkins Hospital for isolation and treatment,” the ministry said, adding that he is stable with a mild disease.
As at 11.50PM Wednesday, 2,073,581 people worldwide had been infected with the virus, of whom 134,040 have died. At least 509,067 others had recovered from the highly infectious respiratory disease which originated in China late last year.-ZIMLIVE
