Samples From 6 Harare Hospital Medical Staff Cases Retested – 30 April 2020

The Ministry of Health and Child Care has released a daily coronavirus update.

The six people were reported to have  tested positive for COVID 19 at Harare Hospitals maternity ward.

This bring the total number of the people tested positive of coronavirus to 40 after 6 were tested positive in Harare and 2 in Bulawayo adding to the previous 32 cases that were recorded positive.

We present the Ministry’s statement in full below.

The Ministry would like to report that following an unusual clustering of the six cases that were reported as positive from Harare yesterday, 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 best practices. The Ministry will update the nation of the results of this Quality Assurance involving the entire testing process preanalytical, analytical (testing) and post-analytical processes.

In the meantime, today, a total of 672 tests were done as shown in table 1 below giving a total of 8318 screening and diagnostic tests done to date. All the PCR tests done in Bulawayo today were negative for COVID-19. Results for the tests done in Harare today were still pending at the time of print.

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• Mat South – 17
• Mat North – 20
• Bulawayo – 208
• Harare – 261
• Mash Central – 37
• Midlands – 4
• Manicaland – 125
• Total – 672

Therefore, to date, Zimbabwe has forty confirmed cases, including five recoveries and four deaths. Six of these cases are undergoing quality review.

• Mat North – 1
  
• Bulawayo – 12
  
• Harare – 19
• Mash East – 5
• Mash West – 3
• Total – 40

he Ministry continues to be on HIGH alert to the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to be guided by the COVID-I9 containment strategy which is based on intensified active surveillance, timely use detection, testing, isolation and management of all COVID-19 cases.

Further, the Ministry would like to remind the nation, that the most effective ways to protect yourself and others against COVID-19 are to practise good personal hygiene and exercise social distancing.

 

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