Ministry Of Health Deny The Six Covid-19 Cases Reported Yesterday

Zimbabwe on Friday said it had carried out fresh tests on six people that tested positive for coronavirus in Harare following an ‘unusual clustering’ of cases.

The previous day, the Ministry of Health and Child Care had announced that the number of people that tested positive for the virus that causes the flu-like Covid-19 disease had risen to 40 following the additional Harare cases.

In an update of tests carried out on Thursday, which was delivered on Friday, the ministry said it was carrying out a quality assurance process.

“The ministry would like to report that following an unusual clustering of six cases that were reported as positive from Harare (on Wednesday), these results were, therefore, considered interim and hence additional tests have been conducted as part of the laboratory quality management system to validate these results in line with the laboratory standard operating procedures and protocols as well as international practices,” read part of the update.

On Thursday, the ministry carried out 672 cases that all turned out negative, bringing the number of people tested for coronavirus to date to 8 314.

Last week, the ministry had to revise the number of people that tested positive to the disease after a Bulawayo case was counted twice following a retest.

Critics say the government is not testing enough people to slow down the spread of the disease that was first detected in China late year.

Four people have died since the first case was recorded on March 20 while five have recovered.

The disease is spreading rapidly throughout the world and Zimbabwe’s neighbour, South Africa is one of the hardest hit on the continent.