Dear Editor

I am based in Mashonaland Central Mazowe district and would like to raise my concern about COVID 19 suspects handling , testing and reporting.

Mashonaland Central is being reported as one of provinces with  low cases of COVID- 19 but i believe this is not the true position.

The current state of affairs in health facilities is that people are not properly being tested and those suspects who present themselves with covid symptoms are returned home without being tested and advised to self isolate at home.

No-one follows them to check their status. This means if the suspect is positive he/she will continue spreading the virus at home.

The health officials who would have attended him/her are not being tested and the probability of further spreading is high among healthworkers themselves.

At Tsungubvi Polyclinic in Glendale a suspect went to the facility coughing heavily and having  difficulties in breathing. Moreso, his temperature was elevated and had diarrhoea.

It is said he had travelled from Mvuma aboard a truck from South Africa with other 7 occupants the previous week. So the signs and symptoms and history of travel clearly points that the boy could be  positive for coronavirus.

He was returned home after spending 2 days at the health facility sharing facilities such as toilets and accomodation with other health workers despite him being a suspect.

The district officials did not come to collect him and take him to the isolation centre at hospital. He has not been tested to date, his status is uknown and the clinic was not fumigated.

So if he is positive, it means most health officials are now at risk.

I am so concerned that if this is what is happening in the province then the figures are not a true reflection of what is on the ground.

May the Provincila Medical Director of Mash Central Dr  Tshuma follow up on this Glendale suspect case because we are now afraid of visiting the health facility because we now don’t know the status of the boy and nurses.

Yours

Worried Glendale Member