ON Monday 25 January, the Health and Child Care Ministry represented by the Head of Monitoring and Evaluation in the Ministry, Dr Robert Mudyiradima and the Director of Epidemiology and Disease Control, Dr Portia Manangazira appeared before the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care giving oral evidence on the COVID-19 situation in Zimbabwe. The meeting, chaired by Dr Ruth Labode (MDC-A Bulawayo) was an opportunity for the Ministry to explain the COVID-19 situation in the country and how the Government was coping in mitigating the pandemic.
The Major Highlights of the meeting are as follows:
Zimbabwe started testing for COVID-19 in Mid-February 2020 and is currently conducting 2000 COVID-19 tests a day.
Zimbabwe has 29 private laboratories, 26 Government labs and 3 research laboratories offering COVID-19 tests.
The Ministry is in the process of scaling up the number of teams that are responsible for conducting testing and those that are doing follow ups on COVID-19 patients.
The Ministry reported that Zimbabwe has adequate supplies of oxygen in contrast to reports in the media that suggested that the country is in short supply.
With regards to decentralisation of COVID-19 testing centres, the Ministry indicated that work is underway to ensure there was decentralisation.
The Ministry noted that hospitals such as Mater Dei Hospital in Bulawayo have not been providing data on COVID-19 statistics.
According to the Ministry, statistics of COVID-19 cases increased when borders were opened with more people travelling to and from neighbouring countries during the holidays. The Ministry reported that they faced challenges in testing a lot of people who queued at the borders.
Ministry officials reported that if one tests positive for COVID-19 but is stable, he or she is sent home for quarantine. Only those that are critical are admitted for treatment.
In addition, the Ministry indicated that those in quarantine should be followed up and given adequate information regarding their safety and that of those around them.
The Ministry lamented over reliance on donor support as one of the major challenges in the Health Sector.
During the meeting, Members of Parliament raised concerns regarding the issue of inadequate fumigation of ZUPCO buses. It is recommended that public transport should be fumigated after every after 3 trips.
With regards to prisons, the Ministry noted that these were considered security zones. Prisons were well taken care of and the Ministry only gets involved in testing if requested to.
The Ministry revealed that a budget for COVID-19 vaccines is yet to be provided for and mobilisation of funds is underway. The Ministry says that the cost of the vaccine is between US$2-$9 each. The government expects to receive three million doses of vaccine through the WHO’s COVAX vaccine facility.
The Ministry says COVID-19 vaccine priority will be as follows:
Frontline workers,
Members of Parliament,
Members of the security sector.. ..-SAPST
