By Patrick Guramatunhu- “There were 102 new covid-19 cases and one death in the country bring the total to 5 745 confirmed cases and 151 deaths,” reported Ministry of Health and Child Care..

The people of Zimbabwe like to be led by the nose like a bull at the market! The country is in this economic and political mess because for the last 40 years Zanu PF has ridden over this nation roughshod, denying the people the freedoms and rights and robbing the nation blind. The nation’s economy is in total ruins and 34% of the population now live in abject poverty.

Zimbabwe’s 5 745 confirmed covid-19 cases and 151 deaths with 16 million population puts the country in the same league, in terms of containing the virus, as New Zealand and South Korea with 1 671, 22 and 5 million and 17 002, 309 and 52 million confirmed cases, deaths and population respectively. Whilst New Zealand and South Korea are known for their very strict quarantine measures and very aggressive test, trace and track regimes respectively; Zimbabwe has done nothing of note to contain the virus. Absolutely nothing!

Zimbabwe’s covid-19 figures should be comparable to those of South Africa with 603 338 confirmed cases, 12 843 deaths and a population of 60 million. One reason why Zimbabwe’s covid-19 figures are low is because the country has not been testing as aggressively as it should.

As of the end of July 2020, SA had done 3 million tests (no where near the aggressive testing of South Korea) and Zimbabwe with 1/4 the population should have done 750 000 tests to keep pace with SA. In reality Zimbabwe had done only 145 000 tests or 20%.

“Test! Trace! Track!” has been the World Heath Organisation’s clarion cry to the world!

It is only by testing, tracing and tracking that one will know of corona virus outbreak and by forcing all the infected into isolation and, if necessary, placing a whole city, region or even country into lockdown, to contain and stop the spread of the virus. If one does not test at all, which is the extreme case, then one will have zero confirmed cases and zero deaths.

The tragedy of doing few tests or zero tests is the nation has no clue how the virus is spreading and therefore will not take even the common sense measures such as isolation to contain and stop the spread of the virus. There have been hundreds if not thousands of covid-19 deaths in Zimbabwe and the people have been forced to bury their dead without taking the precautions to stop getting the virus.

There should be teams of well trained and equipped tasked with the responsibility to bury all covid-19 victims in every district across the land. There are no teams to test suspected covid-19 cases much less team to bury covid-19 dead! None!

There is overwhelming anecdotal evidence to show that corona virus is more widespread than the Ministry of Health and Child Care reports would have us believe. Zimbabweans are chasing to believe the official reports and not their own eyes because they are used to being led by the nose like a bull at the market!