Zim Records Over 600 COVID-19 Cases

Zimbabwe has recorded over 600 coronavirus cases as fourteen more Zimbabweans were confirmed infected with Covid-19 yesterday, with 13 of them infected within Zimbabwe and two found positive while under quarantine, taking the national total since the start of the pandemic to 605.

Bulawayo and Harare each recorded six new cases with Midlands the other two. The Ministry of Health and Child Care said two of the local cases were contacts of a known positive case and health authorities were now tracking down the source of infection for the other 11 local cases.

Another three people recovered yesterday, taking the number of confirmed recoveries to 166 and with the death toll remaining at seven.

South Africa remains Africa’s most seriously hit nation with 151 209 cases confirmed by yesterday morning and with 2 657 deaths. But a total of 73 543 South Africans are now confirmed to have recovered, meaning only half the total number of cases are still regarded as active.

The global total of confirmed cases has now reached 10 512 383, although the actual total, thanks to under-testing is estimated to be much higher. The more accurate confirmed death toll is 512 331, but more than half of all confirmed cases are now regarded as recovered, suggesting infection rates are slowing.

But lifting of lockdown measures in some countries has seen spikes, at least in some regions with the USA, for example, seeing higher rates of new infection in its central belt of states, while the east coast cities where the infection first took a stronghold are maintaining tighter rules and so having far lower rates of infection proportional to population.