State Media

THE spread of the Covid-19 epidemic is coming under control in Zimbabwe, with the number of infections falling below initial expectations, Government has said.

As at 22 September, Zimbabwe has recorded 7 711 confirmed Covid-19 cases, including 5 979 recoveries and 226 deaths.

Yesterday five new cases, all local infections, were recorded while there were no deaths noted. Overall, the epidemic has so far taken 226 lives and the country’s recovery rate still stands at 78 percent.

In a post Cabinet meeting briefing yesterday, Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa noted that while the country appeared to have avoided the worst so far, citizens needed to remain vigilant as the virus was still a present threat.

“Cabinet was informed that the Experts Advisory Committee conducted a modeling exercise on current local and international Covid-19 data and noted that the Zimbabwe epidemic has not peaked as previously predicted due to the control measures that have been put in place.

“The Committee also concluded that the decreasing number of new infections is an indication of an epidemic coming under control. Cabinet, however, emphasizes that the public should continue being vigilant in adhering to Covid-19 containment measures as the effects of Covid-19 will continue to be felt until a vaccine is found,” she said.

Despite social media reports to the contrary, Minister Mutsvangwa said that the number of deaths in the country had decreased.

“Cabinet assures members of the public that there has not been increase in the death rate in Zimbabwe as alleged by some unsubstantiated social media reports. The Law and Order Sub-Committee compiled and compared data from the Central Registry on the country’s recorded deaths for the period January to August 2019 against the same period this year (2020). The data revealed that more people (45 256) died in 2019 than in 2020 (33 818) notwithstanding the threat of the Covid-19 pandemic,” she said.